Lifestyle

Newmarket-on-Fergus will see an influx of ploughing enthusiasts this weekend for the Clare Ploughing Championships.

THE passing of a Home Rule Bill in Westminster did nothing to calm the situation in Ireland in the years following the 1916 Rebellion. The Irish Republican Army began to agitate for freedom and their early targets were the Royal Irish Constabulary. It is generally accepted that the first event in the War of Independence was an attack on the RIC at Soloheadbeg but there had been an earlier attack on a barracks outside Castleisland. By mid-1920, 55 members of the RIC had been killed, 16 barracks had been destroyed and hundreds of them abandoned. As a result, its numbers and morale dropped and they did not control great parts of the country. The Government would not recognise the campaign as war but rather as terrorism and so continued to rely on the RIC, even though there were plenty of army bases in the country. They equipped the RIC with arms and transport but by early 1920, it was obvious …

A KILMALEY man has become one of two people in Ireland to receive a prestigious scholarship to study at the University of Notre Dame in the United States.

The achievement of full CHKS quality assurance accreditation for Cahercalla Nursing Home shows that small community facilities can be the best in the country.

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At 91, Jane O’Neill is fulfilling a role that people 30 years her junior would have trouble performing. Originally from Delvin, Westmeath, Jane has acted as the primary carer for her special needs daughter, Brigid, for 60 years.To this day, nothing fazes her. Perhaps the nerve and fortitude she displayed driving lorries during WWII in England steeled Jane for life’s challenges. That, and her devotion to Padre Pio. Recently she was presented with an Outstanding Carer Award by the Minister for Health and Older People, Áine Brady, at the National Respite weekend for carers in Galway. One of 4,650 carers in Clare, Jane and 11 additional Clare carers were presented with long-term care certificates. Her husband, Michael, died in 1973 and she has two sons, John and Michael. Since her early 30s, Jane has combined looking after Brigid with working for the Ironside family in Spanish Point, where she became more of a family member than an employee. “She had …

OVER 50 new businesses have been produced by young people across the county as part of the Clare County Enterprise Board’s student enterprise awards.

Galway dance teacher, Eamonn Cunniss unashamedly describes himself as a male diva. He talks to Dearbhla Acheson Former Miss Alternative Ireland Eamonn Cunniss, familiar from his appearance on Eddie Hobb’s Show me the Money and for his almost nationwide social dancing classes, says that at the moment, he’s married to his business but wants to fill the lonely gap in his life with a long-term male partner.“Hopefully, my Mr Right will come along. I don’t want to be alone for the rest of my life. It is hard being gay because not everyone accepts us. That’s why so many gay men don’t come out. They are gay but they don’t want everyone to know, so they lead a double life, possibly marrying and having kids and all but secretly having short-term gay relationships on the side. There are a number of men I know here in Clare who are gay but they are in heterosexual relationships because they know that …