Lifestyle

ONE of the great Claremen of all time is the ‘forgotten man’ of Irish history, in the eyes of some. Tim Crowe of the Sixmilebridge Historical Society holds the view that Brendan O’Regan has nothing like the recognition that he deserves, despite having a list of achievements as long as your arm, and having had a seismic influence on the economy of Clare and the surrounding counties. His impact was massive and is wildly underestimated, according to Tim. “In his own way, O’Regan achieved as much as De Valera did, as Lemass did, O’Connell, Parnell, Collins. This guy invented Duty Free, brought Foreign Direct Investment industries, built the town of Shannon, the College of Hotel Management, Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, was central to getting McDonough to buy Dromoland and turn it into a five star, he was chairman of Bord Fáilte for 15 years,” he said. “When the Troubles started, he brought Catholics and Protestants together through Co-operation North, …

Lisdoonvarna’s Tina O’Connell, has been named as the winner of the prestigious 2024 Global Travel Award. Tina, who is a in sculpture and combined media graduate at the Limerick School of Art and Design, received the award for her breathtaking piece entitled Odysseys of Self. She was selected as winner by a highly respected panel of artists and curators including artist Laura Fitzgerald, Paul McAree who is the curator at Lismore Castle Arts, Patrick Murphy the Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy and Aoife Ruane. The Global Travel Award of €5,000, is open to all students graduating from its BA in Fine Art and B.Ed Art and Design Teacher Education in 2024. The award has been designed to offer the chosen graduate a unique opportunity to develop their future career. This is the second year of granting the award to a new graduate artist. This generous philanthropic funding has been made available for students with support from The Ireland Funds. …

The 2023/2024 school year will forever be remembered as a truly momentous one in the history of education in North Clare. Last September, after a combined total of some 360 years of education, staff and students from the Ennistymon CBS, Scoil Mhuire Ennistymon and the Ennistymon Vocational School finally came together to form the long awaited Ennistymon Community School. This new school, decades in the making, now boasts some 700 students, state of the art classrooms, a fully-sized PE Hall and an amphitheater, and with more than 90 teachers and staff it is also one of the single biggest employers in North Clare. While it took until Easter to get all staff and students together in the same building, the spirit of the Ennistymon Community School has been building for years. “It is a bit surreal to have us all under the same roof. It is incredible, after so many years, that now we have outstanding facilities and the newest …

Clare singer, Sionnáin Michelle Shannon, will host a series of free events this weekend entitled Soundscapes and Seascapes or Fuaimdreacha agus Muirdreacha. The events, which will take place at Cleadagh, close to Spanish Point, aim to connect people to the sounds of the natural world using song and the Irish language. The free workshops, which will take place from 2pm to 5pm on May 24, 25 and 26, are designed to help people to deepen their relationship with the natural landscape, as well as to themselves and to one another by exploring the power of silence and sound. “It will be an immersive, sensory, bilingual experience down by the ocean between Spanish Point and the White Strand. There is a lovely cove that I have been going to for many years now and the experience will be happening there,” said Sionnáin. “We will be spending three hours down by the ocean and really connecting to the soundscapes and seascapes. That …

Well, after my Birthday Shenanigans last week, I thought I’d have a wee rest before things ramped up again, but no, it was crazier than ever. Himself only guested at home this week, jetting off to London for Stirling Moss’ Memorial Service and only back for a night before heading off up the country for an AGM. As a result I hardly saw him and I was somewhat surprised when herself and myself ended up at Ennis train station on Friday morning. Now I’ve been on trains in London, but I’ve never had a real train ride in Ireland and I was really excited as we headed off. We arrived at Heuston and who was there to collect us only himself and we had a great reunion. The day was lovely, so instead of going around town, we all decided to head for Howth to get some sea air. I must say it was lovely walking around, trying to catch …

So I’ve finally made the landmark age of 15 – a great age for any doggie – but I have to say, I still feel like a little pup. I was always a slow walker and I haven’t got any faster over the years, but if there’s a bit of food in the offing, I can show a clean pair of paws to any young dog. I wanted to go somewhere really nice for my special day, so I howled to the pawrents that we hadn’t been to BrookLodge for some time and they took the hint – I have them very well trained. So well trained that before we even set off, I got them to order me a new bowtie and two bandanas from Pawssential, which we collected the night before we left. We had to work for part of the day before we headed off, so we arrived quite late in the evening, just in time for …

West Clare based American writer, Tara Darlene Smith, has released a powerful new memoir exploring war, relationships, mental health and healing “I knew nothing about Ireland at the time, I certainly never imagined that one day I’d be living here as a writer,” says Tara Darlene Smith as she reflects on the odyssey of releasing her first book. Twenty years ago, in 2004, the then 22-year-old arrived at Shannon Airport as a US soldier en route to Iraq. The brief stopover gave her enough time to purchase a silver shamrock necklace in a green box labelled “Tara,” which she wore every day at war. Thirteen years later, she returned as a civilian and a tourist to begin what she calls a “love affair with Clare”. It has been, she says, “a journey of healing the traumas of childhood and of war” and “discovering a sense of peace I never thought possible”. In her candid and gripping memoir entitled Sunflowers in …

AN Ardnacrusha heart patient whose life was saved by a double heart bypass, is urging the government to allocate €1.2 million in annual funding to the Irish Heart Foundation. Pauline O’Shea, (50) recalled the National Stroke and Heart Charity helped her to pick up the pieces after the shocking diagnosis she had the heart of a 70 year-old and a heart function of between 10% and 20% before surgery. The mother-of-three required emergency life-saving intervention to deal with Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) when a tear appeared in the wall of a coronary artery, which supplied blood to her heart. When her heart function improved to about 35% following medication and intensive rehabilitation work, Ms O’Shea started volunteering for the Irish Heart Foundation in 2018 before she applied for and was appointed as their Patient Advocacy Campaign Manager since September 2022. Using her marketing and communications experience, she draws on her personal near death experience as a heart failure patient …