News

A judge has barred a man charged with stealing €35,063 worth of electronic goods on two occasions from the same business on Ennis’s O’Connell Street from entering Clare. At a sitting of Ennis District Court, Judge Marie Keane imposed the county ban on equestrian worker, Ion Bărbulescu as part of his bail conditions. Judge Keane remanded Mr Bărbulescu with an address at Citi Hostel on Dublin’s Gardiner Street in custody with consent to bail and ordered that he can only take up bail if he can provide an independent surety to lodge €2,000 in cash to court. Gardai opposed bail for Mr Bărbulescu and in evidence Det Garda Declan Keavey said that Mr Bărbulescu is charged with the theft of mobile phones, Apple AirPods, watches and other electronic goods to the value of €20,890 the property of CEX Entertainment, O’Connell Street on April 16 on the Easter weekend this year. Det Garda Keavey said that Mr Bărbulescu is also charged …

AN elderly Clare man has been stabbed to death while on his mobility scooter in London in what has been described by investigating police as “a shocking act of unprovoked violence”. Thomas O’Halloran, an 87-year-old grandfather was living in the Greenford area of west London but was originally from Ennistymon where he still has a large number of family. The community of Ennistymon have been rallying around the O’Halloran family at this tragic time local Senator Martin Conway has said. Mr O’Halloran was a popular figure in Greenford where he was well known for entertaining locals with his accordion and on the day of his killing it is understood he had been busking to raise money for charity. Police were called just after 4pm on Tuesday to Runnymede Gardens, at the junction with Cayton Road, Greenford to reports of a man with stab wounds. Officers responded and gave emergency first aid until the arrival of the London Ambulance Service and …

TWO people were found asleep on a boat on Lough Derg by RNLI volunteers who had been called to the scene following reports that the vessel was adrift. On Friday morning August 12, Valentia Coast Guard requested Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat to launch to investigate a report from a member of the public of a 25ft vessel adrift in Youghal Bay.  At 8.23am Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat Jean Spier launched with helm Steve Smyth, Joe O’Donoghue and Chris Parker on board. The lake was calm with excellent visibility.   At 8.32am the lifeboat arrived on scene having located the vessel midway between Garrykennedy Harbour and Ryan’s Point at Youghal Bay. Two people on board were sleeping and unaware that their anchor had dragged their boat from its original location. The skipper weighed anchor and made way for harbour.  The lifeboat departed the scene and was back at Station at 8.45am and at 9am the lifeboat was washed down and refuelled.  Aoife …

Deputy Cathal Crowe has called on the government to publish long-awaited new planing guidelines for wind turbines without any further delay. Frustration is growing among communities throughout Clare who have major misgivings about the proliferation of wind turbines and the ongoing delay in updating the 2006 national wind energy guidelines. In fact, the government commenced a public consultation process on these guidelines on December 12, 2019. In November 2019, Deputy Crowe recalled they were due to come before the Dáil for ratification but these draft guidelines were not brought into law and have sat on Minister Eamon Ryan’s desk. “I raised this at a Fianna Fáil parliamentary party and I was backed up by a number of rural deputies. “The National Guidelines on Wind Energy date back to 2006, which are outdated and not fit for purpose. “New wind farm guidelines are absolutely vital, no matter what side of the fence you are on. If you want a proliferation of …

SHANNON has nine new Airport Screening Unit officers, who received their official certificates after completing an intense training course in airport security.   The new officers have undergone training, which included the operation of the airport’s multimillion euro state-of-the-art 3D x-ray screening system. The high-tech system has in-built explosive detection software, which eliminates the need for passengers to separate liquids and electronics from their cabin bags. Shannon is the first state airport to introduce this new technology which halves the time spent going through screening.   Since March this year, the airport has recruited a total of 19 ASU officers to add to its existing team. The new recruits hail from various parts of Clare as well as from  Galway, Lithuania, Poland, and as far away as Bangladesh and New Zealand.   Welcoming the latest nine recruits to the team, Shannon Airport’s Head of Security John Francis said, “I would like to congratulate our latest group of newly trained ASU officers, and thank …

The bill to Swiss pharma giant, Roche in decommissioning and demolishing its County Clare plant has totalled €23.3 million over the last two years. New accounts show that Roche Ireland Ltd last year recorded losses of €24.17m as its bill concerning its decision to exit manufacturing here continued to mount. The loss of €24.17 million last year followed losses of €34.55 million in 2020. The plant was once one of the most prestigious places of employment in the Midwest and the Swiss-owned pharma giant announced its decision in 2016 to shut down its Clarecastle plant with the loss of 240 jobs. After the firm failed to secure a buyer for the pharma site, it set about decommissioning the site and demolishing its fine chemical manufacturing plant “to a brown field status”. In line with the plant’s closure plan, the company ceased all manufacturing in 2019 and completed all sales of product by January 2020. The €16.8 million decommissioning and demolition bill last year follows …

THE waters and the wild of the recently selected ‘Best place to holiday in Ireland’ is calling all walkers. The Burren in North Clare is once again the setting for an 8km ramble on Sunday September 4. The annual event has been rambling the Burren for close on 40 years for the lifeboats and this year’s theme is ‘The Village of our Childhood’. The village of our childhood is Fanore which rests between the mountain and the sea with magnificent views of the Aran Islands and Galway Bay, Sliabh Elva and Blackhead mountains. The ramble will take people by the shore to places where the poitín makers from Conemara traded with the locals for turf and potatoes. A visit to the deserted village on the shore at Loch an Uisce in Fanore will be on part of the route. The site that has been dated as six thousand years old was where the sea hunters and locals gathered to eat …

REVITALISING Shannon Airport to ensure it becomes a key economic driver for Clare and the Mid-West is one of the key objectives for the new Clare County Council chairman, Councillor Tony O’Brien. There have been calls for the election of a council representative to the Shannon Group, which the new first citizen believes should be seriously considered by the Department of Transport. Councillor O’Brien, who became the first public representative from Killaloe, to be elected as council chairman has called for due diligence to be undertaken to ensure the terms and conditions of workers in Shannon Heritage sites are fully protected before the council’s proposed takeover is fully completed. Stressing the need to improve co-operation with the University of Limerick, he said there is huge development potential on the 214 acres in South-East Clare if the new Strategic Development Zone (SDZ) can proceed as planned. “I am humble enough to know that one person can’t deliver on my own. I …