Lifestyle

CHRISTMAS can be a difficult time for families financially but equally, the festive season can cause much anxiety and stress for a family affected by a separation or divorce.East Clare family therapist Ruth McMahon noted, “Obviously many people from all walks of life are under pressure at this time of year not just to provide all that is required but to keep up appearances in this area. In many ways, losing face within the family/community appears to be an extensive worry for many. Financial pressures create a very tightly wound and anxious person who may be very worried and feeling too frightened and/or ashamed to ask for support. This can greatly reduce their patience with others, especially if there are children involved.” According to Ms McMahon, children respond in different ways to the tension this can create in the home, including an increased need for attention, acting out or withdrawal. “They may need simple explanations like ‘this year we don’t …

Hundreds turned out at the Ennis Youth Centre last week as Clare Youth Service presented Volunteer Recognition Pins to 33 people who are making vital local contributions to young people’s lives in all parts of the county.Working in clubs, youth cafés and music projects in Ennis, Shannon, Coolmeen, Kilnaboy, Scariff, Inagh, Kilfenora, Sixmilebridge, Moy and Cooraclare, these leaders are part of the youth service’s 350-strong volunteer force.At the presentation, Síle Lynch of the Clare Youth Service Board said, “Across Clare, these volunteers support our young people by running clubs and projects as well as raising funds and sitting on local and national boards. No award can truly recognise the effort they make so this is a small thankyou and recognition.”The award scheme is a national one in conjunction with Youth Work Ireland and pins are presented in three categories of gold, silver and bronze, depending on length of service. There were 14 gold awards in Clare, which require a minimum …

CHRISTMAS can be an emotive and stressful time for many families. One group that faces stress and strain during the festive period are separated and unmarried fathers.As usual at this time of year, Amen, the support service for male victims of domestic abuse, hase been inundated with phone calls from fathers who are being denied access to their children. Many clients of Amen have had to leave the family home due to abuse they have suffered at the hands of their wives or partners. One father who contacted the group told how he has to drop his children’s Christmas presents at a Garda station in the hope that they would deliver them, as his wife won’t tell him where they are.Another father said, “I can’t bear to think about Christmas, it is heart-wrenching to think that I will spend another Christmas in my bedsit without my children. I have begged their mother to let them stay with me but instead, …

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Once the shutters are tightened for the winter months in Kilkee, it’s vamoose time. The town empties. A visitor could have the horseshoe shaped beach to themselves most days. Or if they felt like taking on the Cliff Walk, it would most likely be a solitary experience.A shortage of people of course isn’t what keeps business ticking over. Up to four or five years ago, Kilkee business owners were more or less guaranteed that the town would be packed for the summer months. Winter was invariably quiet but if they’d had a good summer, they could handle that. Last Thursday, the town was deserted though that was hardly too surprising given that it was mid December. What is concerning Kilkee Chamber president Johnny Redmond however is the fact that the summer season has slackened considerably. The proprietor of The Strand Bar and Restaurant remembers a time when his bar was heaving at 10pm most Saturday nights. Not now though. Last …

“When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past. But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end.” The bonds forged in childhood remain forever grappled to our souls “with hoops of steel.” Memories of the halcyon days of my youth are eternally entwined with summer holidays spent with my maternal aunt, uncle and their five children.I have written before of the sights, sounds and scents of those blissful, idyllic, childhood summers. My memories are redolent of a brimming rain-barrel, mysterious wells, apple-scented haggards, Emerald Toffees produced from my loving uncle’s bottomless pocket and a basin of fresh water, scented soap and a fragrant towel outside the cottage on a stone seat, reminiscent of The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door. Our childhood games were played both to the backbeat of my grandfather playing the fiddle and the cheerful whistle of trains speeding by right outside the …

We fill December with noise and action. Christmas shopping is rather subdued this year but advertising still tells us it’s a time of excitement, business and fun as presents are selected and wrapped, food purchased and family contacted. For many we know, even in the good years, it was a time of business, dreariness, financial pressures, anxiety, family tensions, loneliness and dread at the long break until the new year.Advent, the period of four weeks before Christmas, is a time of waiting when the world is silent, as the days grow shorter and the earth sleeps. It seems we struggle with waiting and silence, especially as we lose touch with the farming and fishing seasons our ancestors took for granted. We have lost this season of expectancy, of waiting for something wonderful, and yet silent, vulnerable, as life changing as the arrival of a child.This year we have all the pressures of financial demands upon us and great uncertainty for …

TOJO Lazzari doesn’t remember much about the accident that took away his arm earlier this year. One thing he does know is that losing a limb has not meant he will lose out on living his life to the full.He is determined to open an outdoor pursuits rehabilitation centre, where people with amputations and other disabilities can come and learn the skills of adventure sports. At the weekend, he moved one step closer to that dream by trying out a specialist prosthetic arm designed to allow Tojo to return to his passion for kayaking. He hopes that with this arm, he will be able to pursue another long held ambition, kayaking the length of the Shannon.“I went out in the water for the first time in ages on Friday in Kilcolgan testing out the prosthetic and it went really well. It was quite painful, I will have to wait until my arm is a bit stronger before I get good …