News

THE children of Ennis Educate Together school are in the frame to be picture perfect for this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in the county capital. The 45 pupils of fourth and fifth classes have been busily working on their entry for the parade for the past month with artist David O’Rourke. And they are now looking forward to showcasing their works of art to the many people who will throng the streets of Ennis for the parade on Saturday.Their entry for the parade, which was themed ‘Ennis – A town of many cultures’ features framed portraits of different well known characters, with the children themselves becoming part of the art.Principal Seán Ó Confhaola explained, “The children created individual frames and chose characters to go in the frames. Then they cut out holes so their faces could go into the art. They will literally be walking portraits in the parade.”This is the first year that Ennis Educate Together has taken …

Three Clare publicans found themselves with combined bills in excess of €185,000 late last year after revenue audits revealed they had under-declared their income tax and VAT.John Redmond of Circular Road, Kilkee had the highest of the Clare liabilities. He was found to owe in excess of €70,000 tax, more than €8,000 interest and €21,146 in penalties, totaling €100,000.Fellow Kilkee publican Michael O’Mara of 12 O’Curry Street, was found to have under-declared tax to the value of €31,741. He was charged interest of more than €5,000 and penalties of €12,697, bringing his final settlement to €50,000.Patrick Reddan with an address at Main Street, Killaloe was found to owe just under €24,000 in tax, less than €5,000 in interest and just over €7,175 in penalties. His total settlement was €39,962.  A West Clare farmer was among more than 400 people fined or penalised between October 1 and December 31 last year. Kevin Sexton of Craggaknock in Mullagh was fined €6,000 as …

OVER 120 key business leaders in the United States attended a networking event in New York aimed at showcasing County Clare’s attractiveness as an investment location on Wednesday night.Organised by Clare County Council and hosted by the Consul General of Ireland in New York, the event was attended by senior representatives and chief executive officers of leading American companies, including Novartis, Horizon Medical Group, Abbott, OCO Global, Jana Foods and Medicomp.The financial sector was strongly represented with the managing director of Credit Suisse and a senior analyst with JP Morgan attending. Clay Constantinou, a US ambassador during former President Bill Clinton’s term of office, also attended the event.Speaking to The Clare Champion, the Mayor of Clare Pat Hayes said the event provided Clare County Council with a rare opportunity to make a presentation to some of the key business and tourism players in the United States.“On behalf of the people of Clare, I also would like to thank His Excellency, …

POST-mortem results are due later this week following the death of an Ogonnelloe pensioner from what is believed to be a suspected heart attack in Killaloe on Monday.Michael O’Connor, Ballyhurley, Ogonnelloe, was driving from his home to the Green in Killaloe when he apparently collapsed at the wheel of his car in New Street and then struck a pole.Killaloe gardaí have confirmed there was only a small amount of damage caused to the front of his car, which has prompted speculation that the 83 year-old bachelor farmer may have died from a suspected heart attack before the collision.The collision happened at New Street just outside the local fire station and only a short distance from Killaloe Garda Station. Fire-fighters arriving for a training session at their station, who happened to be near the scene, provided some medical assistance before ambulance paramedics arrived.Despite extensive efforts to resuscitate the pensioner, he was pronounced dead at the scene. He was removed to the …

A STATEMENT by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar claiming Shannon Airport could be left behind on the runway by Knock this year in terms of passenger numbers has been slammed as “farcical and ludicrous”.Clare TD Timmy Dooley also accused Minister Varadkar of making the claim in an attempt to create fear in the Mid-West. It isn’t the first time the minister, dubbed ‘Leo the Lip’ by some, has caused annoyance in the Mid-West. Late last year he also warned that Shannon could be overtaken by the Mayo airport.In an interview this week, Mr Varadkar said there is “a fairly good chance that Knock will overtake Shannon this year in terms of passenger numbers”.He made the statement despite a huge gap in passenger figures between the two airports in 2011, with Shannon at slightly over 1.6 million passengers and Knock having 654,500. Knock management has forecast 9% growth for 2012, while it is expected Shannon will see a decline, albeit a marginal …

FOR the first time in the history of Kilkee Marine Rescue Service, an all-female crew can now take to the waters off the coastal resort town. The service has approximately 20 fully trained members currently, although that figure increases during the summer months. In recent weeks, Orla Hassett, Vanessa Keane, Annette Stanford, Lorraine Lynch and Fiona Kenny have completed their training and if they were the first five to respond to a call-out, they would form the rescue crew. Furthermore Deirdre Kenny often co-ordinates call-outs from the lifeboat station.“Up until now there could never have been a female crew because enough of us weren’t qualified. We would have been able to be part of a crew but we would have had to have some of the others with us. Now, if it turned out that we were the first to turn up to a call we could go out,” Orla Hassett explained. All five live either in Kilkee or within …

SEVEN Clare schools have been included in the Department of Education’s list of school building projects for the next five years. As announced last December, construction of a new building for Ennis National School is to get underway this year. Ennis Educate Together, currently based on the Gort Road in the county town, is to get a new school with work beginning in 2014/15. Work on a new school for St Joseph’s Tulla is set to begin in 2015/16.In 2014/15 extensions for Shannon Comprehensive School, Ennis Community College, St Anne’s Community College, Killaloe, and Knockanean National School are to go to construction.There was disappointment in Sixmilebridge as the local national school was omitted from the list.Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, parish priest Fr Harry Bohan said he is still hopeful that Minister Ruairi Quinn’s mind could be changed. “We have had contact with local politicians and I got two calls yesterday to say that Minister Quinn is going …

A West Clare County Councillor is calling on Clare County Council to create an inventory of signage in the county that it is responsible for following the disappearance, misplacing and vandalising of a number of signs in the county. Councillor Christy Curtin tabled a motion at Monday’s meeting of Clare County Council asking that the director of services advise the council of recent reported missing, misplaced or damaged road direction and statutory signs in the county and the costing of same. In the motion he also sought the adoption of a revised Code of Practice at area level for the maintenance of an updated signage inventory.Councillor Curtin explained that in the past 18 months he was aware of a number of misplaced, damaged or missing signs along the N67 that he brought to the attention of the council and he claimed the follow-up in relation to this signage was “not to satisfaction”. He said there were two signs, one for …