Lifestyle

As we hit the peak of the wedding season, Anthony Loonam, manager of Club Dangan, Ennis, speaks to The Clare Champion about suit hire, which the company has just branched into, and trends in men’s formal wear SPRING and summer are the busiest seasons for suit hire, with weddings and graduations coming quick and fast.Anthony explains, “Our main clientele would be wedding parties but also students who have graduations and people who are attending a sombre occasion and need a suit to hire”.According to Anthony, despite weddings becoming less formal than their Celtic Tiger peak, a three-piece suit is still a must for most Clare grooms.“It would have to be a three-piece suit when it comes to events like a wedding. It’s the biggest day of your life and you will want to stand out from the guests attending and also feel confident you are dressed appropriately for the occasion. A three-piece suit means you and your groomsmen will first …

ENNIS-based hairdresser Bridget Haren brought home yet another award at the weekend.The young Clare stylist scooped the best bridal image award in the Irish Hair Photographic Awards held on Sunday.The judges on the day decided Bridget’s stunning bridal hair style on model Clodagh O’Brien deserved the top award in the category, adding to the well-known hairdresser’s impressive haul of national and international accolades.Clodagh’s make-up was applied by Emma Fitzgerald of Tranquility Health and Beauty, while Ernest Perryman styled for the Louise Brooks shoot.“The bridal award is brilliant to get because of the amount of brides we do in the studio, myself and Louise. It is a great one to get because it is such a hard one to win. It has to be so particular and precise. Everything has to work together. You have to get everything right. The outfit, the hair, the make-up and the photographs, everything has to come together and has to complement the whole look. It …

CLARE fashionistas hoping to scoop the coveted title of Best Dressed Lady at The Galway Races have just two weeks left to prepare ahead of the course’s summer festival.Judging this year’s competition are three of the best known names in the Irish fashion industry, Bairbre Power, fashion editor of the Irish Independent and executive editor of the Irish Independent Weekend magazine; broadcaster and Off the Rails presenter Brendan Courtney and PJ Gibbons, editor, Social and Personal Magazine.They will be joined by well-known faces from the Galway fashion scene, Patricia McCrossan, managing director of  Galway NOW and Mandy Maher of Catwalk Model Agency.Anthony Ryan’s Galway has just announced details of this year’s event, which takes place on Ladies Day, Thursday, July 28. The Anthony Ryan’s Best Dressed Competition boasts a prize fund of €20,000, with the best-dressed lady set to scoop a prize worth over €12,000.This year’s best-dressed lady will walk away with a one-carat diamond solitaire pendant valued at €8,500, …

{morfeo 97}

It seemed the closer I got to the coastal town of Miltown Mallbay, the darker and more ominous the backdrop of black clouds became. The weather had been beautiful not ten miles ago and in typical fashion of our great isle, another day seemed to be hampered by the prospect of rain.

While Ireland remained neutral during The Emergency (World War II – 1939-1945), the country was on war alert during that six-year period. An example of this was the look-out post located at Loop Head.

  If you can keep your head while all those around you are losing theirs, says the wise old saying, then you have all the attributes for a successful life. One man who epitomises this spirit is the Ennis-based regional manager of Plato Midwest Network, Eoin Tynan-O’Mahony.

THOUSANDS of primary school children throughout the county have been informed about the health benefits of not smoking in a recent initiative by the Clare Health Promotion Tobacco Service.