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GREEN Senator Róisín Garvey has called on Clare County Council to “do better” in terms of using funds allocated for cycling and walking infrastructure. The Inagh woman highlighted figures released by the National Transport Authority (NTA) showing that 81.3% of funds allocated to Clare under the Active Travel Fund were not spent last year. “In Clare our local authority was allocated €5,986,000 for walking and cycling projects in the Clare County for the year 2021,” Senator Garvey, Green Party Spokesperson for Rural Development and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said. “However, according to figures released by the NTA, only €1,113,509 of this was spent. We need to do better for our community. It is understandable that the significant increase in funding since 2019 requires increased capacity, and there have been many additional challenges for our local authority during Covid. However, funding has also been provided for a new Travel Officer role, dedicated to local walking and cycling projects and we need …

Deputy Cathal Crowe returned €800 out of a €1,000 political donation from a Cratloe party supporter after he was advised by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPOC) it exceeded the maximum amount that can be given in cash. Daniel Lehane, Cratloe, sent a cash donation worth €1,000 to Deputy Crowe on January 26, 2021. Deputy Crowe was the only Clare Oireachtas member who declared a political donation above €600 from one source. Deputies Joe Carey, Michael McNamara, Violet-Anne Wynne made no political donations declarations for the period January 1 to December 31, 2021, according to the publication of a new report from SIPOC. Senators Martin Conway, Timmy Dooley and Roisín Garvey also made no political declarations to SIPOC for last year. Under the Electoral Act 1997, as amended, public representatives may not accept donations in any year of more than €200 in cash, and not more than €1,000 in total value from a single source. They must disclose any …

Ambassador of India, Mr Akhilesh Mishra and his wife Reeti are currently enjoying a tour of County Clare. The Indian envoy has been in the county since this Wednesday and will depart on Friday, September 2. The couple visited the Cliffs of Moher Experience this Thursday September 1 and met Geraldine Enright Director of Cliffs of Moher, who presented them with a gift from a local supplier to the the Craft and Gift store, Irish Slate Craft Lahinch, depicting a picture of the Cliffs on local slate. They enjoyed meeting the team and hearing the buskers sing and play traditional Irish music, they were particularly interested in the sustainable tourism measures that the Cliffs are involved in. Cliffs of Moher had the Indian flag at full mast for the day that was in it.

Plans have been lodged with An Bord Pleanála for the single largest ever private housing scheme for Ennis. Availing of the Government’s ‘fast track’ planning system for large housing developments, one of the country’s largest house building firms, Glenveagh Homes has lodged plans for the €65-million 289-home scheme direct to An Bord Pleanala. The Strategic Housing Development (SHD) scheme is made up of 125 three-bed townhouses, 74 3/4-bed semi-detached homes, 66 two-bed townhouses, 12 two-bed duplex and 12 one-bed maisonettes. The scheme – which comes with 488 car-parking spaces – will also provide a 60 place creche. The site with an address at Ballymacaula, Drumbiggle, Keelty, Circular Road fronts into the Ennis bypass link road between the roundabout near Ennis Golf Club and the roundabout on the N85 Lahinch Road. The 11.32 hectare site – which has a net developable area of 8.9 hectares – is located adjacent to Ennis golf club. As part of the purchase agreement for the …

A LARGE number of tourists apparently have difficulty pronouncing the ‘Cliffs of Moher’ correctly, according to a new survey. Clare’s leading attraction which draws tourists from all over the world has been named on a map of place names that people always pronounce wrong, alongside Montreal, Phuket, and Dubai. The language learning platform Preply used Google search data to reveal a list of the most mispronounced places on the planet and how you pronounce them. Amy Pritchett, Learning Success Manager at Preply, said, “There’s nothing more embarrassing than arriving at a new holiday destination and mispronouncing its name in front of a local—especially if you butcher the regional accent.  “To avoid that awkward encounter, we’ve researched the most commonly mispronounced places, so you never have to worry about these tongue twisters again. When you learn to say these place names correctly, I encourage you to sound like a native—or at least a savvy tourist.” The study found that tourists have …

SEVEN County Clare accommodation providers signed Government contracts with a cumulative estimated value of €6.36m to accommodate Ukrainian refugees in the second quarter of this year That is according to recently released contract details by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Clare has become home to one of the highest populations of Ukrainians per capita in the country and the figures provided by the Dept of Integration show that one Lisdoonvarna-based firm, The Hydro Hotel Ltd which operates the Hydro Hotel entered a contract worth €1.53m with the Dept. Another hotel firm, Windward Management Ltd operating the Park Inn hotel entered a contract worth €955,000 while a third firm, Atlantic Hotel Management Ltd operating Lahinch Lodge entered a contract worth €329,400 to house Ukrainian refugees. The figures also show that Kilkee Town Ltd operating the Kilkee Bay Hotel entered a contract worth €1.52m while the Cliffs of Moher Hotel Ltd which operates the Cliffs of Moher hotel …

FANTASY drama ‘House of the Dragon’ is one of the most eagerly-anticipated new releases from HBO and a Tulla woman is centrally involved in the ultra-lavish production.  Ellie Murphy from Church Road, Tulla, is Action Prop Supervisor on the multimillion dollar show. The Game of Thrones prequel has already attracted an audience of 10 million in the US.  Ellie holds a BA in Film and Television from GMIT, where she also met her camera operator husband, John Gogarty. “In college, I was really interested in scripting and in the general work of the Art Department,” she said. “I really like telling a story through the props and through the set. I’m also able to get people with different skills chatting and pulling together and that’s key. I might start off drawing up a sketch and showing that to a concept artist who will then work with a 3D artist, so there are lots of people involved.” Ellie, whose impressive CV …

GORT native Dr James Mahon, one of the first doctors of mobile journalism, recently graduated with a PhD from Queens University Belfast. The broadcast journalist, author and lecturer conducted field research with newsrooms of STV (Scotland), NDTV (India), CBS, WDEF and News 12 (USA) and Lemen Bleu (Switzerland) as part of a pioneering study between 2018 and 2019. James looked at how digital technology is changing broadcasting around the world and found that in many situations these innovations in the workplace were cutting costs for the companies but also having an adverse effect on the older employees. While cost-cutting in most industries causes a stunt in innovation, James found that the opposite was true for journalism, with newsrooms in Switzerland and India switching their studio cameras for phones and even training citizen journalists in how to record videos they could use for their social media platforms. James’ findings were presented at the World Journalism Conference in Paris in 2019 and …