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AN East Clare girl has been cooking up a storm overseas after taking the top prize in Finland’s first Junior MasterChef cooking competition.Ida O’Mahoney and her family moved from Feakle to Finland four years ago. Her prizes for winning the competition are €5,000, a set of professional kitchen knives and a cruise to Sweden with her family.The 12-year-old will be jetting off even further afield, as she has been invited to take part in the World of Food and Music Festival in Hong Kong, where she will meet with Junior MasterChef winners from all over the world.“She was barely three years old when she patiently baked ginger bread biscuits with her grandmother here in Finland and she has been interested in food ever since,” Ida’s father Gavin explained,Ida is a former pupil of the Raheen Wood Steiner School in Tuamgraney, where she still has many friends. Her very proud grandparents, Geraldine and Jim O’Mahoney from Ennis, have been following her …

CLARE County Council have been urged to follow the example of other local authorities by ring-fencing up to €150,000 in this year’s budget to fund events for the Year of the Gathering 2013.Calls have also been made for the presentation of special visitor certificates to all visitors to Clare during the celebration year.Councillor Johnny Flynn, at this week’s meeting of Clare County Council, called on the local authority to consider in the 2013 budget the setting aside of the funding. He commented that the money could be used for the development of up to half a dozen new festivals, one in each electoral area, around certain aspects that are unique to Clare.“This is in order to ensure a balanced regional spread of tourists, access to Clare residents to events and stimulate local economic activity,” he said.Galway County Council have already set aside €150,000 of their budget for the celebrations. He urged that resources be committed by Clare County Council to …

THE people of Clare are being urged to wake up and smell the coffee about the amazing work being done by The Clare Crusaders.As part of Local Newspaper Week 2012. The Clare Champion is doing its bit to make sure the message gets out there. A fundraising coffee morning for Clare Crusaders has been organised by The Clare Champion for this Friday from 10am until 12 noon in the Old Ground Hotel. People are being encouraged to come along, have a cup of coffee and help raise some funds and awareness.“I am asking people to come along and show their support for this wonderful charity, everyone is welcome,” said Clare Champion managing director John Galvin.“The coffee morning is to mark Local Newspaper Week, which involves regional papers throughout Ireland getting together to promote the value of local newspapers to the community.“The Clare Crusaders do such wonderful work with children with special needs. As a community, we are deeply appreciative of …

Leaders in the media industry have forecast a positive outlook for the future of regional newspapers where the printed form will coexist alongside digital editions – as long as the opportunities presented by new technologies are exploited. That was the central message put forward at a conference which addressed the future of the regional press in Ireland. Titled Local Press Trusted 24/7, the conference, held in DCU, was organised by the Regional Newspapers and Printers Association of Ireland (RNPAI) and the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI Local and Regional Newspapers). Per Axel Koch, managing director of Polaris Media, a company that owns a suite of regional titles in Norway, explained they now referred to their newspapers as “media houses”. Their titles had embraced new technologies including laptops, tablets and now mobile phones. The company has experienced only a slight fall in sales of the printed form. However, overall, more people than ever before are accessing their content as there has …

SHANNON Airport has insisted its security procedures are of the highest international standards, following an incident on Sunday in which two peace protestors were escorted off a runway.It was a colleague of the protestors who alerted security personnel to their presence on the runway. The two were subsequently arrested and a file is to be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.The airport issued a brief statement following the incident. “Shannon Airport’s security levels are and will continue to be of the highest international airport standards. The incident in question is under investigation by gardaí and we will be making no further comment as a result,” it said.Seventy-eight-year-old Margaretta d’Arcy was one of the two protestors. She said they were quite happy to be arrested. “We went so that the authorities would know that we are making a strong stand against the military at Shannon. The authorities were alerted A for safety and B because we want to be charged.“We …

MIKE Tyson passed through Shannon on Wednesday morning on his way to a speaking engagement in Limerick.The former heavyweight champion arrived from Manchester for a one-day stay as part of a UK/Ireland tour of eight venues where he has speaking engagements.Duty Manager Carmel Donnellan welcomed Tyson to Shannon. “He was really, really nice. He’s very soft spoken and subdued but really respectful. He just kept saying thanks for everything. He clearly still turns a lot of heads as everyone who saw him was doing a double take.Bill and Hilary Clinton, Chinese Vice-president Xi Jinping and President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas have all been welcomed at Shannon this year, as have soccer manager Roberto Mancini, and singer, Cheryl Cole.”  

JIM CONNNOLLY, the founder and chairman of Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) has confirmed the company has recently made three people redundant. The RRI workforce now consists of just one part-time employee and Mr Connolly, who works for the group, which was established in 1990, on a voluntary basis. “In terms of Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) making people redundant, there’s absolutely no secret whatsoever about it. Cutbacks in Government support, which we used to get from the Department of the Environment, started in 2008 and this year have been reduced to a fraction of what it was. Funding will be absolutely gone from next year,” Mr Connolly told The Clare Champion. “I alerted the board of Rural Settlement, when we had our AGM, telling them it looked like we would not be able to continue and stay solvent. That came to pass and three people were made redundant at the one time. Nobody was dismissed. They were just made redundant. The …

MORE than 25 communities across the county were honoured at the 2012 Community Environmental Awards ceremony hosted by Clare County Council this week with the major gongs going to Ballynacally and Sixmilebridge. Ballynacally Development Group was named overall winner of the Clare in Bloom competition, while Cappa Lodge in Sixmilebridge claimed the top prize in the Best Kept Local Authority Estate category.Addressing the large gathering in the Council Chamber at Áras Contae an Chláir, Mayor Pat Daly acknowledged the work being undertaken within Clare communities to enhance the living environment, adding there was a great level of volunteerism and community spirit in the county as evidenced by the significant public interest in the awards schemes.Tom Coughlan, county manager referenced the challenging times the country and the council is facing.  He stated, “Even though we are experiencing difficult times as a council, I think it is vital to support communities and that is why we continue to stage these awards. It …