News

THE Saint Flannan’s College Space Settlement Design team are over the moon having once again proven themselves to be out of this world in an international NASA competition. The team, made up of five students, have been awarded the highest honour in the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest beating thousands of entries from around the world. Fifth year physics students, Adam Downes, Cian Pyne, Naem Haq, Jack O’Connor and Garabhan Monahan now have the opportunity to present their idea at the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Washington next month. After more than a decade of winning major awards in the most senior category of the prestigious international contest they have built on their previous successes and been awarded the the much-coveted Grand Prize. Their project was judged to be the overall winner from a field of 17,000 participating students who submitted over 3,000 entries. Entries came from 22 countries around the world. The competition brief is to design an …

A NINE-DAY walk by a group of environmental activists to draw attention to the climate and biodiversity crisis will begin at Ennis this Saturday, April 9. The Climate Justice Caravan will be walking across Munster, from Ennis to Tarbert, for climate justice and the rights of nature taking in a number of sites in the Banner County facing environmental challenges. The group is made up of members from, and supported by, the Glasgow Agreement, Extinction Rebellion, Futureproof Clare, Rights of Nature Ireland, Cappagh Farmers Support Group, Keep Tulla Untouched, Safety Before LNG, Friends of Ardee Bog, Irish Seed Savers Association, Ecojustice Ireland, Unite Community Climate Justice branch, and Cultivate. The Caravan will walk from Ennis to Tulla to Scarriff, until it meets the River Shannon at Killaloe. It will then proceed alongside the river through Clonlara, Shannon Banks, Mungret, Curraghchase, Aughinish Alumina, Knockpatrick, and finally Tarbert. Along the nine-day journey, the Climate Justice Caravan will be visiting locations linked to …

A SITE visit of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) found permissive boarding with beds placed “anytime, anywhere, even and including mixed gender” five months before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new unpublished report has revealed. Serious questions about the model of care being adopted in UHL were highlighted in a draft report – “Review of Unscheduled Care Performance” concerning nine public hospitals, which has been released by the Irish Patients’ Association. Chaired by Prof Tom Keane, former President of the RCSI and joint National Lead Clinical Programme in Surgery, the review team, included external clinical and management expertise from NHS Scotland, the Scottish Government and NHS England. They visited nine public acute hospitals including UHL and Galway University Hospitals from August 16, 2019 to November 18, 2019. Overcrowding continues to be a problem in UHL, with 95 patients on trolleys in the hospital on Wednesday, April 6, which once again was the highest in the country. UHL had 36 …

A judge has rejected an application that he throw out a €60,000 personal injury action by a Co Clare mother before evidence is heard in the case. At Ennis Circuit Court, Jack Nicholas BL made the application to Judge Colin Daly after the judge found that Caroline Sherlock of Carrowgar, Lahinch was not in a car with her family when it crashed into a car being driven by Gaelscoil principal, Deirdre Ui Mhaile at Moy outside Lahinch in 2014. Ms Sherlock has made a personal injury claim against Ms Ui Mhaile arising from the accident and Judge Daly made the finding, that on the balance of probabilities, Ms Sherlock wasn’t in the car at the time when throwing out her husband, John Sherlock’s own €60,000 personal injury claim against Ms Ui Mhaile from the accident. Ms Sherlock was a witness in that case where she was adamant that she was in the car and Judge Daly dismissed John Sherlock’s action …

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has today advised that Ferrero is extending its recall of products due to possible presence of salmonella. The recall has been extended to implicated Kinder products of all best before dates and all pack sizes of Kinder Schokobons. The investigation into a food poisoning outbreak of Salmonella, which is affecting Ireland, the UK and a number of other European countries is ongoing. To date, there have been 15 cases in Ireland with the same strain of Salmonella responsible for the UK outbreak. A number of these Irish cases have involved young children. The FSAI is warning consumers who may have the recalled products at home not to eat them. This extended food recall today relates to the Kinder products listed as follows: Kinder Surprise 20g, all batches and all best before dates; Kinder Surprise, 20g x 3, all batches and all best before dates; Kinder Mini Eggs, 75g, all batches and all best …

A BODY has been recovered from the sea off County Clare this afternoon, the second in less than 24 hours. It is understood two former Doolin Coast Guard members spotted the body yesterday afternoon. A drone was launched to investigate and footage confirmed the presence of a body. However, weather conditions were considered too dangerous to effect a safe recovery. Gardaí requested divers from the Garda Water Unit to travel to Clare this morning to carry out a recovery operation. Two boats departed Doolin Pier at around 10.20am in what would be a two-hour operation to recover the body. At around 12.30pm the divers safely recovered the body and transported the remains to Doolin Pier where they were met by local Gardaí, Coast Guard volunteers, a doctor and priest. When the man was formally pronounced dead his body was removed by hearse to University Hospital Limerick where a post-mortem examination will be carried out later. Meanwhile, not long after the …

A Quin-based terminally ill cancer patient has recalled his “amazing emotional experience” after completing an unplanned climb of Croagh Patrick with former RTE journalist, Charlie Bird last Saturday. It is estimated that more than €2 million has been raised by the “Climb with Charlie” charity treks for Pieta House and Motor Neurone Ireland. John Wall decided to travel to Westport with a group of friends in a show of solidarity for cancer patients Vicky Phelan and Brian Lynch, but had no plans to climb Croagh Patrick because he felt he wouldn’t be physically able and had no prior training. However, after travelling to the base of the mountain he climbed about one third of they way up on his own and was going to turn back after two others had gone ahead on the ascent. “I decided I would get to another peak and go down again. Then I did the flat section in the middle section before arriving at …

GARDAÍ in Ennis are to be asked to examine the feasibility of rolling out a system which would allow people to text in reports of suspicious activity. The ‘See Something, Say Something’ system has already been a success in Tralee with a reported drop in reported public order offences a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District heard this week. The council agreed to request local gardaí “in the interest of public safety” to look at the possibility of introducing the system to the county capital. Proposing the idea, Councillor Johnny Flynn outlined that the text based system, developed by Tralee-based company ZinMobi, allows members to report suspicious activity anonymously to gardaí. The councillor stated, “We all love and are proud of Ennis, our county capital town centre which over the last few years and for the next five years will see  well over €15 million invested in its public spaces, main square, streets, lanes and bowways and other public spaces. …