News

LAHINCH Seaworld and Leisure Centre will open its doors for the first time in two and a half years, after extensive input from the local community. The board of directors made the decision to close in December 2019, just before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, to find the investment needed to enhance the facility. Eoin Conlan, manager at the centre, emphasised the importance of Clare County Council in getting the facility up and running again, as well as a range of philanthropic donations to that end. He said, “Pat Dowling and all his team, with other local councillors, made funds available for us. Roughly €6 million has gone into the facility in the last two years, and the massive community effort came as much from the local businesses and the regular people.” One feature which the local community asked for was a learning pool, because of the lack of a communal pool in Lahinch; campaigns began to surface on …

THERE has been shock throughout east and south Galway after the death of Kate Moran, following a freak incident in a camogie match in Ardrahan on Monday evening. A candlelit vigil is to be held on Wednesday evening at 9pm in Kenny Park GAA grounds in Athenry. In a post on its Facebook page on Tuesday Athenry camogie club said, “Today we learned of the death of our dear club-mate, Kate Moran. “This is a terrible tragedy for her family, our club and our community. We are deeply saddened by these events. “Our sympathy and thoughts are with the Moran family and friends. Kate will be greatly missed by all who knew her. “Kate began playing with Athenry Camogie Club at underage level and quickly progressed to Senior A level with great distinction. “She holds a Feile, Minor County and Intermediate County title. She played in a club All Ireland Intermediate final. She won two All Irelands at U16 level …

A BURGLAR went to great lengths to gain access to a business premises in Ennis at the weekend. In the early hours of Saturday morning, April 16, at approximately 1.04am the alarm was activated at the business premises on O’Connell Street. When they key holder checked the premises at 1.30am, he discovered that entry had been gained to the shop by removing slates on the roof and forcing entry through the ceiling slabs. A quantity of electronic equipment had been stolen. Gardai are appealing for anyone with information on the crime or who may have been in the vicinity at the time and seen something suspicious to contact Ennis Garda Station on 065-6848100.

A BRIDGETOWN native has been involved in a major project to promote biodiversity and recreational amenities on the campus of Mary Immaculate College. Linda Treacy joined a team made up of members of LEAF Ireland and college staff to plant almost 100 native trees on the college grounds. Planting a ‘Choill Bheag’ on the grounds of Mary I will create a small, dense native woodland habitat for biodiversity and an educational and recreational resource for the whole college community to enjoy.  As part of the Choill Bheag project, Linda and fellow student teachers attended forest-based workshops in Coillte’s Curragh Chase Forest Park in Limerick. There, they were shown a variety of different ways that the outdoors can be used to educate children in all curricular areas.   This woodland habitat at Mary I will provide an on-site educational and recreational resource for the whole college community, enabling students to participate in programmes including Citizen Science, Woodland Skills, Nature Connection and Wellbeing. The woodland also links …

Shannon Airport has received globally recognised accreditation for its efforts in tackling carbon emissions. The airport joins over 200 European airports engaged in one of six available certification levels of the Airport Council International (ACI) Europe’s Airport Carbon Accreditation programme. The programme is a voluntary carbon management certification standard for airports, that independently assesses and certifies airports for their efforts in managing and reducing their carbon emissions. Having previously become a signatory on the ACI net zero 2050 pledge, the airport now joins 79 other accredited airports in 15 countries that have been certified for Level 1 – Mapping of the carbon accreditation programme. The award follows the airport signing up to the groundbreaking Toulouse Declaration in February of this year, which marked the first time that European Governments, the European Commission, industry, unions, and other key stakeholders formally aligned on aviation decarbonisation. Welcoming the accreditation Sinéad Murphy, Head of Sustainability at Shannon Group said: “We are delighted to receive …

A PROJECT to explore the improvement that growing hemp could have on soil quality has been launched in West Clare. Community-based local development and farming forum Loop Head Together launched its Hemp4Soil project with the aim to vastly improve overall soil quality and benefit local biodiversity. Based on the west Clare peninsula the group has organised the experimental project in conjunction with Hemp Co-Operative Ireland and Teagasc, the first of its kind in Europe. The results could potentially help create sustainable income streams for the farmers involved, as well as providing a product from which offshoots could inspire local industry. Margaret Cotter, speaking on behalf of Clare County Council’s Rural and Community Department, said, “This is a wonderful demonstration of how a small rural community can lead the way in research and real-life practice for climate initiatives and potential carbon sequestration.” Hemp4Soil intends to use regenerative farming techniques to improve the life of soil via soil remediation, microbial life and …

Planning permission has been granted for a pet crematorium in Ennis – despite objections from a sole mystery objector living 141 miles away. An Bord Pleanala has now cleared the way for Ennis couple, Aimee and Danny Keller to build their pet crematorium at a unit at Gort Road Business Park in Ennis. However, the project has been delayed by four months after an appeal was lodged against the Clare County Council grant of permission last November by a ‘Don Weldon’ from Navan, Co Meath. In a response to the appeal by planning consultants for the Kellers, P Coleman & Associates raised questions with An Bord Pleanala if ‘Don Weldon’ is a real person. The address provided by ‘Don Weldon’ is a numbered house at Ros na Ri, Commons Rd, Navan, Co Meath. A desk top legal investigation carried out for Aimee and Danny Keller on the person purporting to be Don Weldon determined that the numbered Ros na Ri …

AFTER 29 years and after placing a huge number of people in jobs, Shannon company Peach Recruitment is closing down. Since the start it has been run by Derek Barrett, a well known figure in Shannon, and he said he really enjoyed the experience. “It was a great business to be in, because ultimately we were helping people. The amount of people we placed in this town has been fantastic. We were always delighted to do that. “There were others we couldn’t place, but we always tried to help them, whether that was improving their CV or giving them career advice.” We always tried to do right by the jobseekers. They were always the number one priority, I know people would say the client, the employer is the primary one, but we would have taken a view that if we get it right for the candidate it all works out. If you get it wrong, it doesn’t work out for …