Lifestyle

A NEW sculpture by Kilnamona’s Michael McTigue can now be seen in the Parnell Street Car Park in Ennis.

Japanese is alive and well within Clare, thanks in large part to influential Ennis-based teacher Midori Hayes. Ms Hayes has instilled local students with a willingness to learn, as proven by her former students’ recent credentials.

The website www.invasivespeciesireland.com has identified Japanese knotweed as one of the most unwanted invasive plant species in Ireland.

In the TV comedy Dad’s Army when Corporal Jones is not telling everybody “don’t panic, don’t panic” he often refers to his service under Kitchener when they were fighting against the “fuzzy wuzzies” in the Sudan.

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PRIOR to teaching at the old Kilbaha national school in the 1950s, Kitty Garvey had never set foot in Clare’s most westerly community. In the intervening six decades, the Miltown Malbay woman has grown to know and love Kilbaha and the school, where she served as principal from 1968 until 1993. On Friday, the new school will mark its 50th anniversary, although records show the old school, which is now Halla Eoin, was established in the early 1870s. “I hadn’t heard of it even,” Kitty said of her knowledge of Kilbaha prior to securing a teaching post there. Not yet 20, she stayed with a local family during her early years teaching at St Cuan’s National School, Kilbaha. “I lodged with Paddy Keating, his wife Bridget and family. It was a super experience. The house was two miles from the primary school so I was able to walk or cycle, morning and evening,” she reminisced. “I came to the greatest …

The diversity of the programme of activities that underpin the annual County Clare Show at The Showgrounds in Ennis will be embellished this year with the inclusion of a Clare Garden Festival for the first time. The festival, on July 29, will be free of charge for all show visitors and will feature talks and demonstrations in the areas of ornamental and vegetable gardening by national gardening celebrities. Gardening has long been a well-established and loved pastime in Clare and, more recently, Grow-It-Yourself groups have been established all over the county with plenty of talks and garden visits on a monthly basis. The county is also framed by alluring gardens in Bunratty, Kilrush, Ballyvaughan, along Lough Derg and near Scariff and a recent public poll, Ennis 2020, shows that people value attractive green areas and would like to see a public park. Acknowledging the county’s passion for gardening, the first Clare Garden Festival has been organised with the aim of …

SHE may have recently retired as principal from a national school, yet a Clooney-based mother couldn’t escape from the teaching bug. A few months after ending her 40-year association with Stonehall National School, including the last three-and-a-half as principal, Betty Murphy is back in the classroom.T he Down Syndrome Association of Ireland has initiated a new Latch On (Literacy and Technology Hands-on) two-year programme for adults with intellectual disability, which was pioneered in Australia. This is the first of its kind in Ireland and Europe and Clare is one of the 12 counties who are participating in the initiative. The Clare Language Centre in Ennis were looking for teachers to run the programme and Ms Murphy was offered the job after an interview. Having worked in the provision of education for children with special needs as a learning support and resource teacher for 13 years, she is looking forward to this new challenge. Following some recent testing of the 12 …