News

Conor Clohessy looks ahead to the Tour De Munster passing through Clare next week DOWN Syndrome Ireland will be looking forward to having its 21st Annual Tour De Munster cycle fundraiser from August 5 to 8, having already raised a staggering €3 million since 2010 for the Munster branches of the charity alone. Because this year is different and the usual avenues for fundraising locally, such as collecting money in buckets, is far more difficult, the Clare branch of Down Syndrome Ireland has created a raffle in conjunction with the Tour De Munster to help them in their efforts. The prize of the raffle is a Corratec Dolomiti racing bike worth €1,600, donated by the family-run triathlon shop Planet-Tri, and within the first 24 hours the raffle had raised over €1,000. Treasurer for the Clare DSI branch Laura Cahir said: “The shop is very good for community involvement, always doing work for different charities. “Last year we had a donation …

WITH a booming staycation summer close to its zenith, Kilkee Waterworld reopened this week. “We opened on Monday morning at 8am with a private lesson and then we had swim classes for the following two hours,” said Tracey Corbett Lynch, who is now managing the facility. She said it had been great to be able to reopen, after a very long closure. “There was a very short window of opening in the summer of 2020. We’re just delighted to be open and to welcome families in, both local and ones spending some time here over the summer.” Like many other premises around Clare, a major effort was required in advance of opening the doors once again. “We had a huge amount of work to do. When I joined in mid-June we first of all had a deep clean, we brought some contractors in to deep clean the whole building. “We had professional companies in to do the windows, we had …

A DIGITAL hub, cafe and 46 residential units are planned as part of a proposed transformation of an historic area of Ennis, which the developers say will offer “an opportunity to bring a new vibrancy to this community”. Eko Integrated Services Ltd have lodged an application for the ‘Buttermarket Development’ at the Drumbiggle Road, Buttermarket Street and Simm’s Lane. The site is in an Architectural Conservation Area of Ennis. The former Buttermarket building, a protected structure dating from 1862 is located on the opposite side of Simm’s Lane, and according to the developer’s the name ‘Buttermarket Development’ has been chosen “in recognition of the area’s heritage and connection to the former Buttermarket”. In more recent times a flats complex was located on the site which has been demolished. The site is currently unused with four vacant terraced cottages to the north on Buttermarket Street, which the developers are seeking to demolish as part of the plans. If given the green …

AN EXCITING collaboration has taken place in East Clare bringing together the natural beauty of the landscape and the rich heritage of the Irish design and craft sector, writes Fiona McGarry. With the support of the Design and Craft Council of Ireland’s #MadeLcoal 2021 campaign, the 12 O’Clock Hills Project has teamed up with a locally-based designer and maker to celebrate their achievements to-date in developing the region as a destination for walkers and hikers. The group has commissioned a limited collection of unique baseball caps hats and beanies produced by skilled artisan Ailish McElroy at her design studio in Bodyke. The aim of this collaboration is to celebrate and support Irish makers and their work, calling on consumers to shop local and consider the breadth of Irish-crafted, high-quality products available here. It also promotes the hiking and walking amenity and celebrates the achievements of the 12 O’Clock Hills Project to-date which has developed three walking and hiking trails for …

FANORE gardener Carl Wright has certainly reaped what he has sowed with his hard work at Caher Bridge Garden seeing him named among Ireland’s Garden Heroes. Carl, who is originally from Devon and moved to Clare in the 1990s, appeared on the new RTÉ One show Ireland’s Garden Heroes last Thursday, wowing the judges with his creative use of space and winning the show. Speaking to The Clare Champion Carl told us he is delighted with the win, adding that he was “quite surprised” when judge Ingrid Swan turned up to give him the good news. “They managed to cover their tracks pretty well. They said they were coming to do a bit of filming that hadn’t gone right last time, so we just assumed that’s what they were doing and then they turned up and surprised us”. He hadn’t seen the show, or the other gardens he was up against, until Thursday night. “I didn’t know what the other …

WORKS on a new footpath and pedestrian crossing for Clooney will begin in a matter of weeks and the local community development group will be informed shortly about the time-frame, writes Fiona McGarry. The matter was raised at the July meeting of the Killaloe Municipal District when Councillor Pat Hayes tabled a motion seeking an update. The Fianna Fáil member noted that Clooney and Quin had been added to the East Clare district in recent years and that Clooney now has an active community group. “The group are proposing to create a sense of a centre for Clooney,” Councillor Hayes said. “They have raised issues around paths and crossings and I would like to thank the Killaloe district team for their efforts to move this up the line and get greater funding opportunities for the works,” he said. “The works will clearly show the commitment of Clare County Council to the community of Clooney. The council should always embrace efforts …

A BID to buy more time to thrash out controversial aspects of the new development plan for Clare has been successful. At a special local authority meeting on Wednesday, a motion invoking new legislation that makes provision for the disruption caused by the pandemic led to the granting of an additional seven months to finalise the blueprint. While the extension of time was granted in strict compliance with the provisions of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act, 2021, several council members have pledged  to use the additional time to ensure the new plan is as favourable as possible in terms of the development of rural Clare. There were some dissenting voices from the Ennis district with two members reluctantly backing the extension and expressing reservations about potential delays in major projects for the county town. At the council’s July meeting, 11 members had tabled a motion seeking a stay on the plan for 12 months. Councillors Murphy, Hayes, Cooney, Gerry …

THE 2021 Capital Plan has made an allocation of €6 million for health facilities in Clare, with six projects earmarked for investment this year. The blueprint unveiled by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and seen by The Champion allocates €1.89m towards the provision for what is described as a “fit-for-purpose residential addiction treatment service” to replace the existing facilities at Bushy Park, outside Ennis. In respect of the replacement community nursing unit for St Joseph’s Hospital, which will comprise two 50-bed units on a green-field site, 75 of which will be long stay and 25 short stay, an allocation of €0.95m has been made by the Department of Health. Provision for the equipping of the new Out Patient Department (OPD) at Ennis General Hospital – which will include the provision of an X-ray room and other diagnostic facilities has been made and represents a spend this year of €0.44m. Meanwhile, Phase 1b of the redevelopment of Ennis General Hospital which will consist …