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CLARE Rose Marie Donnellan is rallying her supporters to follow her to Portlaoise, for the Rose of Tralee Regional Festival from May 30 to June 3.It’s a major tourism event on the Irish festivals calendar attracting 61 Roses, their families, friends and festival-goers from Ireland and around the world.Rose of Tralee host Dáithí Ó Sé will interview each of the 61 Roses over three nights before two judging panels select 23 Roses to go forward to the International Festival and Rose Gathering in Tralee next August.Newmarket-on-Fergus’ Marie is a qualified accountant working in Apple and has just returned from a year travelling the world, in which she gained huge international personal and professional life experiences. She is secretary of her local Tidy Towns committee. Marie describes herself as a true country woman at heart, who loves every tiny detail of country life.Roses representing 29 counties in Ireland, 14 regions in the United States, Scotland and seven major cities in the …

THE family of a Polish man who tragically died in Ennis  said their final goodbyes at a cremation ceremony this week.  

DETAILS of Ireland’s biggest business competition will be unveiled at a free workshop for new and emerging businesses at the Ennis Innovate Regional Innovation Centre next month.The InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn Promotional Workshop takes place at the Information Age Park facility on June 7 and is aimed at SMEs who are interested in becoming ‘investor ready’. The free event features the launch of the 11th annual InterTrade Ireland Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition, which has a cash prize fund of €280,000 and aims to transform equity raising businesses into first-class investor ready companies.According to Gert O’Rourke, director of Ennis Innovate, “The workshop is free of charge and there will be plenty of opportunities for questions and networking. Individuals and companies who are interested in entering the Seedcorn Competition this year can discover the process for entering the competition and receive advice on what an investor looks for in a business plan.”Now in its 11th year, the Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition has supported …

THE fallout from Alan Shatter’s revelations about an interaction between Mick Wallace and members of An Garda Siochána continued apace this week. It is a very unusual case and will be of great interest to most people for what it seems to reveal about how politics works in the country. By politics I of course include the issue of “garda discretion” which led to this revelation in the first place. Perhaps it speaks to a great naïveté on my part but I was under the impression that having penalty points quashed or taken off the system was not common practice. I believed that with the arrival of new electronic and computerised systems, such things had been confined to the past where things operated on a wink and a nod basis. In the aftermath of all the tribunals which exposed the corruption and skulduggery which defined Irish public life for so many decades, I thought we might have learned some lessons …

HALF of Clare County Councillors believe the introduction of abortion legislation will reduce the likelihood of the death of a pregnant woman from a medical complication.Councillor Brian Meaney cited the public outcry in the wake of the death of Savita Halappanavar as the main reason why the Government finally decided to introduce legislation following rulings from the Supreme Court and the European Court of Justice.While Councillor Meaney believes it is impossible to legislate for every medical complication, he said the new legislation will provide more legal clarity and protection for doctors.Councillor Curtin believes the legislation should reduce the possibility of a similar case. Councillors Bill Slattery, Brian Meaney, Pascal Fitzgerald, PJ Ryan, Oliver Garry, James Breen, Tony Mulqueen and Pat Burke are reasonably confident the new legislation will make a difference if a similar case arises, while Councillors Richard Nagle, Joe Cooney and Tony Mulqueen hope it will make a difference.Councillor Joe Arkins, who has major misgivings about the use …

THE proposed allocation of more than €3 million for rural development projects in the county is being held up as part of a national review of LEADER funding.

ENNIS Town Council has been asked to consider locking its superloos at night, after a county councillor proved any person could use them for an overnight stay.