News

One of the country’s most prestigious golf clubs added just 16 new members to its books last year and according to the club’s chairman, faces “serious challenges” in the global recession attracting new members and retaining its existing ones.Lahinch Golf Club showed “a modest surplus” last year of nearly €100,000, according to its statement of accounts and this has been attributed to a cost-reduction policy introduced in 2008. “The surplus was achieved from a combination of tight cost control, implementation of a three-day week from January to March and October to December, restructured staffing arrangements and a 10% increase in green fee bookings. There have been further staff redundancies and resignations in 2011 and the process is ongoing to attain an acceptable overall staffing structure at an affordable cost that will deliver the standard of product and service required by the members and visitors to Lahinch Golf Club,” said Richard Pyne, chairperson of Lahinch Golf Club council.The club’s total excess …

THE long-awaited construction of a footbridge over the railway line on the Quin Road in Ennis has been hit by more delays, with Clare County Council confirming to The Clare Champion that the project is to be re-tendered.It is envisaged that it will take between four and six months to appoint a new contractor to the much-anticipated project. Tenders had originally been invited for the project in 2009, however it was a further two years before Iarnod Éireann and the Railway Safety Commission sanctioned the project. The contracting firm has now told Clare County Council it is not in a position to construct the bridge, due to increasing material costs.Ennis West Electoral Area Councillor James Breen has raised concerns about public safety on the bridge, calling for urgent action to be taken “before someone is seriously injured”.According to Councillor Breen, “When people in Bruagh na hAbhain, Quin Road, Ennis bought their houses they were charged a planning levy of €10,000 …

FORMER Director of Shannon Liam Skelly has added his voice to calls for the airport to be given a fair share of Aer Rianta International following a decision on the future of the State airports, something that’s expected inside three weeks.Aer Rianta International originated in Shannon and Mr Skelly was involved in establishing it in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Speaking to The Clare Champion this week, he said local control of the operation has been lost following the State Airports Act, which has resulted in Shannon being under the control of the Dublin Airport Authority for several years.He also said Shannon didn’t get its share of the hundreds of millions of euros raised by the disposal of ARI assets, such as its share of Birmingham Airport and ownership of the Great Southern Hotel Group.The Booz Report acknowledges there is an issue around the future of ARI but doesn’t make a very definitive recommendation.“ARI is viewed by many stakeholders …

“Today, certain people file for bankruptcy, businesses and individuals and it no longer has the stigma it once had. Now it’s almost considered wise, a way to regroup and come back again.” – David Dinkins (1927- ) A well-known Irish media figure was recently reported to be aiming to catch the boat to England. The euphemistic vessel is not the one that has ferried emigrants from Ireland’s shores through the decades in search of work. Nor is it the one that has secreted away pregnant Irish girls to rid themselves and perhaps their families reputations of unwanted pregnancies. No, this is a new type of boat, which has been becoming increasingly popular with those in Ireland whose debts have become something they want rid of. They want a line in the sand and a fresh start with their debts wiped and written off. They are fleeing to Britain to do this because the law over there is far more lenient …

MINISTER Rúairí Quinn addressed the Teachers Union of Ireland’s (TUI) annual conference on Wednesday and its president Bernie Ruane, a teacher at St Patrick’s Comprehensive in Shannon, said he received a relatively warm welcome.“He got a good reception. Delegates were very polite to the minister. They applauded certain parts of what he had to say. He outlined the economic realities of the country and he said that in relation to educational change, he realised it wouldn’t be wise to rush too far ahead too quickly and that he would consult with teachers and practitioners. He talked a bit about third level and the importance of having a very good third-level system to attract industry here. He spoke about the huge amount of money that the country owes and that the Troika were demanding that more money be taken from the education system.”Despite this, she said the minister was told squarely that industrial action is likely to follow any cut to …

A COUNTY Clare principal and senior member of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) in the county has accused the Government of having “failed abysmally to protect the vulnerable in our society”.Sean McMahon was speaking following the Minister for Education’s address at the INTO annual congress, which took place this week in Killarney. Mr McMahon also warned that the proposals in the recent budget will see the “destabilisation and potentially the closure over time of one-third of all small, mostly rural, primary schools”.INTO members reacted with outrage to cuts in education contained in the Budget, saying that “small primary schools and education generally is being asked to pay the price for the Government’s austerity policies”.The minister faced a protest from teachers in relation to small schools when he addressed the INTO congress. He responded by saying that small schools cannot be immune from austerity measures arising from the reality of current budgetary realities. He spoke of the necessity to make …

THE success of the Shannon College of Hotel Management in bringing in students from China can be replicated in the agriculture/food science sector if a new education hub is developed in the Mid-West, according to Mayor of Clare Pat Hayes.

CRATLOE native Daniel Keane lost his life 100 years ago when RMS Titanic struck an iceberg just South of Newfoundland.The 35-year-old, who was originally from Gallows Hill, was working as a tram conductor in Donnybrook, in Dublin and made the journey to Cobh, County Cork where he boarded Titanic in the hope of travelling to St Louis in Missouri.His grandniece, Ita Cusack, from Ballyliddane, Cratloe explained how Daniel came to her grandmother’s home in Ballyliddane for a family get-together to send him off before he made the journey to Cobh.“He came home to Clare before he left and he had a party in my grandmother’s house, Bridget King (née Keane), she was a sister to him, on the night before he left. He had a very valuable bicycle, which he left to a cousin. He also wore a belt tied around his waist that had sovereigns sewn onto it. We don’t know why he was travelling because he had a …