Lifestyle

The Loop Head Tourism group were presented with their 2010 European Destination of Excellence award, under the aquatic tourism banner, in Kilkee on Monday.The presentation was made by Minister for Defence Tony Killeen. The West Clare group will receive €5,000 for business development support initiatives in the coming months. Held in 22 European states, the competition was funded and organised by Fáilte Ireland and the European Union. The competition sought a sustainable tourism destination in Ireland, which demonstrated an innovative approach to aquatic and marine tourism.The Loop Head Tourism group consists of Kilkee business people Cillian Murphy (chairman), John Williams, Kilkee Chamber president Johnny Redmond and Kilkee-based architect Tom Byrne. The adjudicators said that they were particularly impressed with what they described as “the energy and enthusiasm” of the local groups and the range of aquatic activities that are available on Loop Head peninsula.Fine Gael TD Pat Breen said this week that improving sign posting in the region should be …

MOST 100-year-olds tend to have trouble removing the rose-tinted glasses. In fact, there are plenty of people who fall well short of 100 years old maintaining that their young days were the “good old days”.Kilrush centenarian Jack Dunleavy isn’t among the county’s century-old citizens who thinks that everything was better in his day. The good old days, he maintains, never existed. Jack definitely can’t recall them.“They’re a myth and as you go along, it’s the same story. It’s a repetition. They were never good days. They were the same always. Always the same to my mind,” he told The Clare Champion at his home in Moore Street, Kilrush last week.Jack is surrounded by birthday cards marking his 100 years, which he hit two weeks ago. Through his living room window he can view Kilrush and his native street, both of whom are central to who he is.“I was bred, born and reared in Moore Street. Never outside it. To me, …

{morfeo 39}

NOBODY in Kilbaha or Cross knows for certain when it happened. They are not even sure how many dead sailors are buried by the road side in Kilclogher, Kilbaha. Some say the Yellow Men drowned in November 1873, while others believe that between nine and 11 men perished in the early part of the 1800s. The wretched story of the doomed sailors has been part of the peninsula’s oral tradition for almost 140 years and perhaps another 60 could be added to that if an exact date could be determined. The midsummer Kilclogher vista doesn’t divulge or even hint at how enraged and inescapably deadly the glistening mouth of the River Shannon can turn. Ringed by narrow roads where the grass flourishes in the middle, Kerry Head and Loop Head are simultaneously visible, a mere 11 miles dividing them. Peer steadily and the Brandon Mountains in Kerry shimmer into view, while Kilbaha Bay is a short spin west, over land …

AN Ennis-based social club for people experiencing mental health difficulties has recorded a song to raise funds for the group and to help reduce the stigma surrounding mental health difficulties.

NO scavenging bird should dare to swoop on young Hannah Casey’s vegetable garden. If they do, they’re in for an awful fright.

A background of birth at Dromoland Castle and then education at Harrow and Cambridge is not what you would expect of the leader of a rebellion.

{morfeo 38}