Lifestyle

Apart from Sarah Palin, the state of Alaska has a lot to offer the United States. It has immense reserves of oil, coal and natural gas together with many precious metals. The Prudhoe Bay oilfield alone is estimated to contain 10 billion barrels of oil and 27 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It is a vital part of the future of the country, which is a great change from those people who felt that the United States should have nothing do with the area. It is a massive and remote state which covers a huge territory. Its capital Juneau is almost as near to Tokyo as it is to Washington DC (300 miles difference). Not surprisingly, it has the most northerly point of the United States but it also has the most westerly point – Peaked Island – and the most easterly point. Some of its islands straddle the 180 degree line of longitude with the result that Pochnoi …

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CLARE County Council paid tribute to the legend that is Robbie McMahon at a civic reception in the Council Chamber on Monday evening.For those who know Robbie or who have had the pleasure of hearing him sing or been in his company, he needs no introduction. But for those who haven’t, Robbie is a singer, songwriter and genius for the comic turn of phrase. He is also an entertainer, a great traditional showman and to those in his local community, is a great neighbour and friend. Robbie, who is now 83 years young, was born in Spancilhill and has lived in the same house all of his life on the family farm. Robbie says he has been singing all of his life. “As a very young boy, I’d be out on the farm with my father and I’d be singing away making up old songs in my head and humming away thinking of words. I remember a medal at some …

FOLLOWING a successful career as a television camerawoman, West Clare resident Deirdre Noonan had surgery earlier this year which meant she could no longer carry heavy equipment. Having made her own clothes for years and faced with the high cost of buying materials for her daughter who is studying fashion design, she decided to open her own fabric shop in Limerick. “Part of the reason I decided to open the shop is that I was spending so much money on fabric for my daughter and we ended up having to go to Dublin and over to London a lot to buy it,” she recalled. Deirdre has lived in Cooraclare for the last 11 years in the house that has been in her family for 160 years. Her love of fabrics and textiles, however, came from her time in London where she studied painting. She started her working life on a placement with RTÉ in 1986 going on to work for …

BORN in the Caribbean to an Irish father and a Spanish mother, designer Eilis Boyle did not have a stereotypical upbringing. After studying fashion in Madrid, she moved to Ireland in 2001. Nearly a decade on, the Meath resident is travelling to Clare to take part in Ennis Fashion Fortnight.

Clare’s secondary school pupils are being invited to participate in one-day local area fora as part of the 2010 Clare Comhairle na nÓg.

The raid on Harpers Ferry by a group of slavery abolitionists led by John Browne, was one of the incidents which sparked the start of the American Civil War.

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