Lifestyle

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ONE hundred years ago this month, Clare’s only Irish college, Coláiste Eoghain Uí Chomhraidhe, Carrigaholt was established.Overlooking the Shannon Estuary and with views of Carrigaholt Castle and Kilredaun lighthouse, the distinctly white coated building nestles in a tranquil setting, two miles from Carrigaholt village. The college caters for a maximum of 100 pupils (86 boarders) in the months of June, July and August. Five teachers and two student teachers are employed for the duration of pupils’ three-weeks stay, while Macdara Tóibín is the Ard Mháistir. He succeeded his father Buadhach Tóibín, who joined the college staff in 1940 and served as Ard Mháistir from 1944 until his death in 1997. “It’s one of the oldest colleges in the country. I think there was two Irish colleges (Waterford and Cork) founded before it,” Macdara Tóibín told The Clare Champion. While Carrigaholt or the Loop Head peninsula wasn’t a fully blown Gaeltacht in 1912, Irish was spoken by a sizeable number of …

WRITERS often have to deal with moments of alarming peril. Not all of them have had their wife chase them around the kitchen, issuing chilling warnings about deadlines however.

During our school days one of the Irish poems we all had to learn was Cill Chais. We all heard about “deireadh na gcoillte” and how the great native woods were cleared. The woods were indeed cleared not just for sale but also to ensure that the disposed Irish had no place to hide or from which to attack the planters.

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JOHNNY Richardson remembers his sister Gillian. You would remember her too, he says, if you met her. He recalls an outgoing, funny person, focussed on her job, a great sister, a great partner and a great mother. She was also intensely private and maybe, he suggests, “that was part of her difficulty”.

SENATOR Martin Conway stands in the lobby of the Old Ground Hotel. He wears a customary suit and holds a briefcase. In an hour he will board a train to Dublin to attend Seanad Éireann. He is just a few feet inside the door, watching it, waiting. He greets those walking in. “Typical politician”, some might say, “saluting everyone”. Martin has learned from experience that it is better to say hello to everyone than to snub a friend or supporter.

WHEN Carmen Cronin was made redundant from her job with a multi-national company in Shannon, she was stunned. It was her worst moment since she moved to Ireland from Frankfurt in 1999 to study at UL. She was well aware that the recession was biting but didn’t think she would get caught in the economic maelstrom.