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Dan  Danaher A national racism watchdog has praised the “decisive action” taken by Sinn Féin arising from anti-Traveller comments made by its former Ennis Local Election Candidate, Cathal O Reilly. The Ennis butcher resigned from the party on Wednesday afternoon after anti-Traveller comments he made on Facebook three years ago resurfaced earlier in the week. While Mr O’Reilly’s name will appear on the ballot sheet on the ballot sheet today as a SF candidate, he is no longer a party candidate. In his resignation statement, Mr O’Reilly admitted making racist comments, which he is deeply ashamed of now. “While I no longer hold such views, the fact that I previously held them has been publicised now and this has caused embarrassment to me, my family and to Sinn Féin,” he said. ENAR Ireland welcomed the “decisive action” taken by Sinn Fein arising from anti-Traveller comments made by Cathal O Reilly. While Enar Ireland acknowledged Mr O’Reilly had confirmed in his …

Last week (May 14), a big crowd filled the function room of the Stella Maris Hotel at a protest meeting regarding what organisers maintain is the lack of progress on repairing the storm damage on the sea front in Kilkee. The meeting was supported by all the main organisations in the town. Retired Kilkee pharmacist and community activist, John Williams was among those who spoke at the meeting. “A large number of people spoke, most expressing frustration at the absence of information from Clare County Council on where it stood on the works to be done. Speaker after speaker said it was a disgrace that the local authority would leave a major tourist route and part of the Wild Atlantic Way in the condition it is, over the tourist season,” Mr Williams told The Clare Champion. He said organisers of the Hell of the West Triathlon spoke of their frustration trying to get details of their route from Clare County …

A mother who lives in rural West Clare has told The Clare Champion she was first introduced to drugs when she moved to the region from a neighbouring county. The woman, who has received treatment for alcoholism in Bushypark, Ennis, has not had a drink for two and a half years and has succeeded in dealing with her issues, which had led to bouts of depression. “This is where I discovered drugs; in West Clare. It was only drink when I was in my teens but, when I moved down here, it was drugs. Luckily for me, I was never offered or introduced to heroin. Plenty of coke, ecstasy or tabs. I don’t even know the modern terms for them nowadays,” she said. The woman didn’t have to travel from her rural location to buy drugs, although she does recall picking up a supply in Shannon on one occasion. “I think I did some sort of a pick-up in Shannon. …

The Mountshannon white-tailed sea-eagle pair, Saoirse and Caimin, has welcomed a new addition to their feathered clan, as the first white-tailed sea eagle chick is born in East Clare under the national re-introduction programme this year. The Golden Eagle Trust has confirmed that the sea eagles had been minding two eggs in their Mountshannon nest for over a month and, two and a half weeks ago, they believe the eggs hatched. One of the chicks has survived and the Trust confirmed this week that the surviving chick is doing well. The pair created history in 2013, when they reared the first chicks to fly from a nest in Ireland in over 100 years. A new nesting pair at Glengarriff was the first pair to hatch chicks this year, in late April. Unfortunately, the breeding efforts of this pair and a pair nesting in Killarney National Park failed, probably due to a combination of poor weather and inexperience. The East Clare …

Nine East Clare community and Tidy Towns groups have benefitted from a once-off funding allocation, totaling €34,000, under the Public Area Enhancement Scheme, to improve their own locality. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is providing 75% of the finance, with the remainder being matched by Clare County Council. Scariff Community Council’s project to carry out improvement works to Riverside Park, and Sixmilebridge Development Association/Tidy Towns’ proposal to develop a Slí na Sláinte Walk Route have benefitted from most of the funding available, each receiving €6,000. Further to this, two East Clare groups will receive €5,000 under the fund. They include Kilkishen Development Ltd, which aims to develop a Kilkishen Castle Bog Walk, while Tuamgraney Development Association will also benefit from this funding, which will be used to carry out improvement works to the approach road to Tuamgraney from Bodyke. Aistear Iniscealtra Mountshannon have been awarded €3,000 in funding to upgrade the public park, while, in a …

Four Clare primary and secondary schools have been awarded green flags for the first time bringing to 100 the number of local schools now holding the international award for environmental action. Run by An Taisce in partnership with local authorities throughout Ireland, the Green-Schools award scheme is an international environmental education programme and management system that acknowledges long-term, whole school action for the environment. St Patrick’s Comprehensive School in Shannon; Coore NS, Kilkishen NS and Scoil Mhuire in Meelick were presented with their very first green flag at a special An Taisce Green Schools Awards ceremony held in the Radisson Hotel in Galway recently. A further 32 schools successfully renewed their Green Flags following work on  new themes including energy, water, travel, biodiversity and global citizenship litter/waste. The schools include: Clondrinagh NS; Úlla Beag Preshool, Killaloe; Doolin NS.; Scoil Mhainchín, Ennistymon; Ennis Educate Together NS; St John Bosco Community College, Kildysart; St Senan’s Primary School, Kilrush; Lakyle NS, Whitegate; Moyasta …

This year’s Doonbeg International Jazz Festival will be running in the village from May 30 to June 2. Festival programmer, Philippa Siegrist, said there are several popular groups playing over the weekend, which should help draw a very large crowd to the West Clare village. “It’s our 15th year, which is brilliant, it’s amazing. This year, we have a band coming from Holland, called The Busquitos (pictured right), and they’re very good. We have a band from Scotland, called Jazz Main. They’re coming back, due to popular demand. The Paul O’Driscoll trio from Dublin are coming; we have Ace Minski. I play in a band called Skazz myself, who should be top of the bill! “We have a children’s fun day on the Saturday and that will be free. We’d expect to have three, maybe four thousand people over the weekend. It’s great,” she said. Philippa said the organisers try and make sure the music is accessible to everyone. “We …

Clare Sinn Féin has been rocked by the shock resignation of its Ennis Local Election candidate, Cathal O’Reilly, over anti-Traveller comments he made three years ago. While Mr O’Reilly’s name will appear on the ballot sheet as a Sinn Féin candidate, he confirmed his resignation from the party in a statement to  The Clare Champion on Wednesday evening. Despite this major setback, Sinn Féin is still hopeful of winning a council seat in West Clare or Shannon. The Clare Champion understands his decision to quit the party was made after anti-Traveller comments he made on social media on October 19, 2011, emerged this week. They were regarding “knackers being kicked up and down the dale”. The newspaper also believes he made derogatory comments about AIB, Xtra-vision and the Queen of England in separate posts. According to one well-placed source, Mr O’Reilly was told to quit after senior party figures were given a copy of other comments he made about local …