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Clare’s district court judge has stated that as a woman she has on numerous occasions had to suffer inappropriate behaviour from men who have no respect for women. At Kilrush District Court, Judge Mary Larkin made her comment before convicting a 56 year old west Clare man of sexual assault after he slapped the backside of a woman who he was attracted to on November 17 2021. The man – who has no previous convictions – pleaded guilty to the offence of sexual assault of the woman after he slapped her backside while she was queuing to pay for her shopping at Queally’s Supervalu, Kilrush in west Clare. Solicitor, Michael Ryan for the man said his client “is a man of his era” and did not understand the laws of attraction when one party clearly indicates to the other that they are not interested and that is ignored and this is what happened on this occasion when the woman was …

A FATHER told his estranged partner that he would come for her if their son “turns out gay” in a row over the young boy’s haircut, a court has heard. At Ennis District Court, the mother of the young boy said the boy’s father made a “direct threat” after he said that “I was cutting his hair gay.” She said, “He told me that “if he turns out gay that he would come for me”. She added, “I saw it a direct threat over the history that we have.” The woman has a Safety Order in place against the man since 2020 and he was before the court concerning an alleged breach of the Safety Order arising from the words allegedly uttered at The Planet play-centre for children in Ennis on August 18 2022. The woman said, “I made the complaint against him because I was in fear. I was scared.” However, Judge Mary Larkin dismissed the alleged Safety Order …

PEOPLE from Clare are jetting off to the sun for surgery in a bid to avoid long waiting lists in Ireland. An organisation which works alongside the HSE to facilitate surgery abroad, have said the service is particularly popular with Clare residents, confirming they have helped 24 people in the county access treatment in Europe under the EU Cross-Border directive. Among them is well known Ennis business man Ken O’Grady who flew to Spain for an operation after being told he would have to wait four years for surgery here in Ireland. Ken has said he was amazed to discover he could fly to Alicante on Spain’s Costa Blanca to get the operation for free under the EU Cross Border Directive which allows patients here in Ireland to go to other EU countries for healthcare. The cost of his operation at the Vithas hospital in Alicante was reimbursed by the HSE after he called Healthcare Abroad Ireland. Mr O’Grady, owner …

E-SCOOTERS, drug driving and safer cycling could be some of the tasks on the ‘to-do’ list for the new joint role of Active Travel and Road Safety Officer at Clare County Council.  At the January meeting, Councillor Gabriel Keating called on the authority to appoint an officer to deal with the issues of active travel and road safety. “In January 2021, Minister Eamon Ryan and Hildegarde Naughten launched funding for up to 248 jobs in local authorities to expand walking and cycling facilities all over the country, costing more than €1.8 billion during the lifetime of the government,” he said. “One of the conditions was that each local authority will appoint an Active Travel Officer. Now regarding the Road Safety Officer, there has been a huge increase in the number of fatalities on our roads in Clare and I think it’s time now that we consider appointing a new full time Road Safely Officer.” The motion was seconded by Councillor …

AT last week’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District, Councillor Gerry Flynn highlighted anti-social behaviour that has the “potential to cause serious accidents”. The Independent member asked that the Council to investigate possible improvements to the attachment of safety signage throughout the district. He said in some instances anti-social behaviour is “causing health and safety concerns for road users, due to malicious moving of signs, that has the potential to cause serious accidents”. In a written reply to his motion Senior Executive Engineer Tom Mellett said, “As the office becomes aware of damaged or missing signs we will arrange for their replacement. “We work with our sign suppliers to ensure that all signs are in accordance with current standards of attachment.” However Councillor Flynn said that the existing standards may not be adequate and that there is a need to give feedback about the issue to suppliers.  He said that “scumbags” are responsible for turning the sides the wrong way around. …

HEARTBREAK is being suffered by those struggling to find a home, when so many properties are left vacant and derelict, a meeting of Clare County Council has heard.  The comments came from Councillor Shane Talty in response to a motion tabled by Councillor Joe Killeen. The Ennistymon postmaster agreed with calls for stronger Council powers to use Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs). “If your family are housed, you might not even see the derelict properties,” he said, “But, for families and young people, and older people for coming off an income cliff in their transition to retirement age, if you’re passing out these derelict properties every day, families are literally heartbroken and say, ‘Why can’t I get an opportunity to make a home and make a life for a family there’?” Tabling the motion, Councillor Killeen said, “Every opportunity must be made to try and alleviate the situation by making more homes available. We must register our frustration at the number …

A multi-agency search and rescue operation has been mounted at a river in Co Clare after a person was reported to have been seen enter the water late this afternoon. Emergency services were alerted shortly before 5.30pm when passers-by spotted a person in the River Fergus in Ennis and raised the alarm. Units of Clare County Fire and Rescue Service from Ennis station including specially trained swift-water rescue technicians (SRT) were mobilised along Clare Civil Defence, National Ambulance Service and Gardaí. Members of the Doolin unit of the Irish Coast Guard were also tasked to the scene while the Shannon-based search and rescue helicopter was also requested to assist but it’s understood poor visibility prevented Rescue 115 from taking part in the operation. No further details are available at this time…

ENNIS man Professor Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin, MA, MBA, HDE, DUÉF, PhD was recently appointed Director of the School of Irish Studies at Concordia University Montréal. This international School—the largest of its kind in North America—has a faculty of twenty professors, lecturers, fellows and tutors, and 1400 students who take its undergraduate and postgraduate courses every year. Delivering interdisciplinary programmes in Irish language, history, music, geography, film, literature, theatre, and diaspora studies, the School has hosted over a hundred visiting scholars during the past decade, including Fulbright Scholars from the US and Marie Curie Scholars from the European Union. It is the only School of Irish Studies in the world where research is conducted in four languages: Irish, French, English and Spanish. This synergy is made possible by the Canadian Irish Studies Foundation, the Québec government and Concordia University, who have donated over $14 million to the School since it was founded in 2009. A multilingual scholar who emigrated to France …