Lifestyle

A WEST Clare construction firm has played a key role in the redevelopment of one of the Mid-West’s top tourist attractions, King John’s Castle in Limerick, which reopened last week following a €5.7 million redevelopment.

DIVING enthusiast Christy Healy is always prepared to go to great depths to raise awareness and crucial funding for children suffering with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses.

PLASTERER Michael Barry from Kilnamona is hoping to scoop a big win for Ireland at the WorldSkills Competition taking place in Leipzig in Germany in July.

“A DREAM come through”, is how Newmarket-on-Fergus native Marie Donnellan describes the moment she was selected to represent Clare at the international finals of the Rose of Tralee selection in August.

Since independence, the GPO has had a special place in our history. Politicians placed a great importance on being able to say that they, or their ancestors, had been there in 1916. For some, dying in the GPO was the great symbol of national importance. Not too many, however, could claim to have been born in the GPO. One such person was William Lawrence. His father worked there and it seemed that the family lived on the premises. In later years, his name was associated with the Lawrence Collection, possibly the greatest collection of photographs in the country, dating from the late-1800s. 

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Emmet ‘Hopper’ Ryan’s life, and death, leaves an indelible mark on family and friends, writes Peter O’Connell

Historian and founder of Cuimhneamh an Chláir oral history group, Tomás MacConmara is working on a PhD documenting the Anglo-Irish War of Independence in Clare. He tells Carol Byrne how his first real brush with the War of Independence was unearthing a revolver as a child