News

THE Shannon Region is receiving vital support in this time of recession with a new high-powered US-based business group pledging to champion its cause Stateside.

I don’t know if many people would agree with Michael McDowell’s claim during the week that the media treats politicians as a ‘sub-class’.

Sitting on the train back to Edinburgh from London last Sunday, having attended a friend’s wedding, Helen and I were struck by the ebullience of one of the passengers sitting at the table opposite. She was enthusiastic on a monumental scale, seemingly eager to speak to anybody that wandered within audible distance of her seat. The people who held tickets for the three places around her gradually appeared and as their conversation spread simultaneously through its natural progression and the carriage, we learned her back-story and that of one of her new-found companions.

MORE than five years after Emer O’Loughlin’s body was found in a burnt-out caravan on the Clare/Galway border, gardaí have confirmed the young artist was murdered.

TENSIONS between feuding Traveller families erupted on the streets of Ennis this week when a man sustained serious slash injuries after being attacked by a number of people.

THERE was high-speed drama in Ennis on Wednesday evening when gardaí pursued a stolen jeep through the town.

MUCH hard work will be needed to rebuild confidence and trust in the Catholic Church in Ireland after the damage caused by clerical abuse of children, according to the newly-appointed Bishop Elect of Killaloe, Fr Kieran O’Reilly.

LOOP Head in West Clare was revealed as the winner of Ireland’s European Destination of Excellence 2010 on Wednesday afternoon.