News

THE HSE has elected to suspend walk-in Covid-19 testing at its Ennis Test Centre due to high volumes of people attending. Testing is still available at the Covid-19 Test Centre in Ballymaley Business Park, but only by appointment. Tests can be booked via the HSE website, or through your GP. The centre’s opening hours of 11:10 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. are unaffected. The changes take effect from tomorrow, Tuesday, September 7, and will be kept under review. There has been an increased demand for testing over recent weeks, and the past few days have been very busy in Ennis with over 2,000 tests conducted in the last week alone. Exceptionally high demand has also been reported in the Ennis test centre this Monday, September 6). Norma Quirke, Community Testing Lead with HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare says: “We are appealing to the public for their patience and assistance while our staff deal with high numbers presenting for Covid-19 testing. “While it …

ONE of the country’s most vocal campaigners on defective concrete blocks has appealed to Clare homeowners to work with him for better redress. Paddy Diver joined a remote meeting of the Clare Pyrite Action Group on Friday, just hours after they spoke to Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. Mr Diver from Donegal is one of up to 5,000 homeowners affected by mica. Like pyrite, mica causes defects that lead to cracking and crumbling of blocks. The Donegal activist was updated on the minister’s pledge to give a decision, in a matter of weeks, on the Council’s application for access to the Defective Concrete Blocks Grant Scheme. Mr Diver is a member of the working group looking for an increase in redress from 90 to 100% and one of the organisers of a protest in Dublin last June. “The light at the end of the tunnel is in all counties coming together,” he told the meeting. “In Donegal, we were kept on …

EVEN though Covid-19 restrictions will be substantially reduced over the coming weeks, a local mental health advocate has stressed people who are feeling isolated or depressed will still need support. Shine regional development officer, Ann Marie Flanagan has urged people to be on the look out for those who have been badly hit by the lack of proper social interaction during the pandemic. While Covid-19 has presented new challenges for people who already felt isolated, Ms Flanagan said one of the positive developments that emerged from the pandemic was how people rallied to form community response teams to bring medication and groceries to those in need. She urged people involved in Covid-19 response team to try and maintain contact with an elderly person who is isolated and let them know supports are still available. Her views were expressed in the run up to Suicide Prevention Day on Friday, September 10. She stressed it is important people drop in on their …

LISCANNOR songwriter Aoife Doyle will release Strength To Be Strong, the first single from her upcoming album, this Friday. The song is a groovy, soulful mix of gospel, jazz and roots, with stomping brass arrangements. “Strength To Be Strong is about having to dig deep to find the strength to stay strong in the face of ongoing adversity. To release this song as the first single off the album felt like an appropriate choice, given the world events of the last 18 months, she explains. Aoife, originally from Bray, County Wicklow, has been living in Liscannor since 2014. She grew up in a house steeped in traditional and folk music, and completed a BA in jazz performance at the prestigious Newpark Music Centre, and an MA in Songwriting at the World Academy of Music and Dance in UL in 2018/2019. 
 
She cites a wide and varied range of musical influences including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Alison Krauss …

A DANGEROUS building in Tulla is to be made safe by Clare County Council, after the owner failed to comply with several requests for action to address the situation. There have been a number of false dawns in terms of works on the vacant building on Main Street, with numerous efforts made by the local authority to communicate with the owner and to get them to make the building safe. Since a Dangerous Structures Notice was issued five months ago, the footpath has been closed and disruption caused to vehicular as well as pedestrian traffic in the town. Last week, the Council moved to inform members of the Killaloe Municipal District that it is to carry out the works and that a contactor has been procured. Councillors were told that while multiple opportunities were given to the owner, no works had materialised. An exact date for the beginning of the works has not been confirmed. The Council has previously said …

A FUNDING plan for the long-awaited sewerage scheme for Broadford is due to be outlined in October, the Housing Minister has said. On a visit to Clare last Friday (August 27), Minister Darragh O’Brien met PJ Mason and other members of the Broadford Action Group and explained that a review of the National Development Plan will contain details of a funding stream for unserviced villages. Minister O’Brien commended the action group, which he described as “very organised”, and pledged that the situation of Carrigaholt, Cooraclare and Doolin would also be looked at. “Last year, I gave €188 million extra in capital to Irish Water,” the Minister told the media at an event in Ennis. “Now we got to look at the towns of villages where we want people to start living again, and to regenerate them. “We can only do that if we got the wastewater and freshwater capacity to do so… I’d expect in the National Development Plan review, …

Ruan’s Imogen Cotter says she is honoured to be a part of the Irish cycling team at Rás na mBan. “Before this year any time I’ve been selected to race I’ve suffered an injury. It was a really big goal of mine heading in to this year to wear the Irish kit so I’m delighted to do it.” Back in June 2019, she was selected to ride for Cycling Ireland at the Kreiz Breizh Elites Dames in Brittany but was unable to race after fracturing her sternum. She was asked to represent Cycling Ireland at Rás na mBan that same year but she injured her radius and another opportunity to represent her country went abegging. When the pandemic led the Rás and other events to be cancelled, it appeared that Cotter may have missed her opportunity to represent her country. She never lost faith though and finally got the opportunity to wear the green jersey in the Kreiz Breizh Elites …

TWO people in need of rescue when their fishing boat engine failed on Lough Derg signalled their position to rescuers using torches as night had fallen. At 9.30pm on Thursday evening, August 26, Lough Derg RNLI who were out on exercise were requested by Valencia Coast Guard to assist the occupants of a 12 foot fishing boat just off the Goat Road, on the eastern shore of Lough Derg. The lifeboat with helm Eleanor Hooker, crew Doireann Kennedy, Tom Hayes and Ciara Lynch on board, immediately diverted from their exercise in Dromineer Bay to assist. The RNLI crew plotted a course to the Goat Road and monitored the fast moving vessels operating in the area on radar. Valentia Coast Guard informed the lifeboat that they had requested the casualties to uses lights to signal their location as the lifeboat approached. At 9.49pm as the lifeboat approached the Goat Road, the people on the casualty vessel indicated their position using torches. …