Lifestyle

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Cathy Myring is adamant that rural depopulation and the prevalence of families with 2.4 children can be attributed to a single factor – television. Now 85 and living in Killard, Doonbeg, Cathy isn’t short of credibility. She is one of 14 Blake siblings, all of whom attended Baltard National School in Doonbeg between 1926 and 1955. So let’s get back to Cathy’s theory. In her day, 60 children attended the local primary school. These days, that figure is significantly smaller. “What’s the difference?” Cathy wonders aloud while sitting in the school last week. “Television,” is her succinct reply to her own question. “You’ve got to have something to do in the evening,” she laughs after a thoughtful pause. She is particularly grateful that neither television or radio was a factor in 1925. That’s probably because Cathy was born in 1926. “That was all they had to do,” she says of her parent’s child-creating talents. “I think that’s why there are …

If Edel Smith gets her way, West Clare will be resounding to the sight and sound of Strictly Come Dancing volunteers this November. The Carrigaholt National School teacher, who is from Doonbeg, has been fundraising for and volunteering in the Cherven orphanage in Belarus since 2001.  During that that period, Doonbeg Cherven Orphans, which is a registered charity, has helped a unit containing about 20 children. Their fundraising efforts have resulted in a multi-sensory room being installed, lifts have been repaired, children are brought on trips to Minsk and Ireland and some orphans have received specialist medical treatment. However, Edel has noticed in recent years that some young adults, who were raised in the Cherven orphanage but have no special needs, are often not aided in any way. “I want to build a halfway house, where the young adults in the Cherven orphanage can live on their own but still have someone there to look out for them,” Edel, who …

LAST year 26-year-old Ennis woman Ciara Finucane weighed a little over 27 stone. Over the years, she had unsuccessfully tried diet after diet in a bid to lose those elusive pounds.

IT may still be summer, but people throughout the county are being urged to think about their home’s insulation needs.

MANY Irishmen have won the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry  presented to military forces in the United Kingdom.

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HE may play for a Limerick club but soccer player Michael Neville is a Clare man through and through. The 25-year-old from Cappa Lodge, Sixmilebridge, will represent Ireland in soccer for this year’s Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens.