News

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has declined to publish an interval review concerning the death of a psychiatric patient at the Ennis Acute Psychiatric Unit, despite a request from a local councillor.

KILKEE Town Councillor Elaine Haugh Hayes has asked Clare County Council to seek professional advice regarding the removing of seaweed from Kilkee beach and the movement of sand from the East End to the West End. This month’s town council meeting heard however, that birds eat the seaweed and appear to be dependent on it.

KILRUSH town councillor Ian Lynch has expressed the hope that the currently vacant community centre in the John Paul Estate will be used again by local groups. He feels that if the centre is used, it will help to generate community spirit in the estate.

BIG Phil Hogan isn’t into semantics. Neither, it seems, does he court political popularity, even within the ranks of his own Fine Gael party or among his Labour colleagues in Government.

A lot of things in Irish politics sicken me but few things have sickened me more than the sight of Unionist politicians trying to get the Government here to apologise for the actions of the IRA in the past.

There was a mixture of mirth and disbelief when it was announced last week that the European Union had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It wasn’t because, as in the case of Barack Obama, that the union had increased the use of unmanned drones to murder military targets and sent surges of troops to Afghanistan but it just didn’t seem to fit. In my case, the announcement was serendipitous because for the last few weeks I have been researching an under-reported fact lurking below the surface of the Greek bailout deal.

FOUR town councils in Clare, with a combined membership of 36, and four county councillors are facing the axe under proposals for the most radical shake-up of local government in decades.