News

CLARE musicians Tara Howley and Doireann Ní Ghlacáin are to feature as part of a new six episode TG4 series of concerts recorded at the Cork Folk Festival in 2020. The episode will be broadcast on Sunday, May 16 at 9.30pm. Tara is an award winning multi-instrumentalist, singer and dancer from Kilfenora. She has spent the last number of years as the piper with Riverdance and is a social media star with her tune a day campaign in 2019. She is also behind her father Pádraic Howley’s runaway Instagram success story ‘Sing and Step with Padraig. She is a two-time senior all Ireland champion on the uilleann pipes. Tara has numerous all Ireland titles in solo competitions and with bands and groups in various instruments such as concertina, fiddle, uilleann pipes and many more. In 2014 Tara toured Britain and Ireland with the group Macalla na hÉireann and The Echoes of Erin. She produced and launched her debut solo album …

Kevin Corbett spoke with members of the Burren Sub Aqua Club about their fantastic experience with Clare’s famous dolphin Dusty on a dive off Miltown. See our video below TEN days on from their magical underwater encounter with one of Clare’s most famous marine residents, Jennifer and Jessica Smith are understandably still buzzing. The sisters, from Sixmilebridge, found themselves on RTE news last week after their interaction with Dusty the Dolphin was filmed while on a dive off Miltown Malbay with Burren Sub Aqua Club. Escaping the exam pressure that May typically brings, Jennifer, in her first year of mechanical engineering in Galway, and Jessica, a Leaving Cert student in St Caimin’s, Shannon, took to the pristine waters for a bit of relaxation with dad Finbar and other members of the club. Then, quite literally out of the blue, who should appear but Dusty the Dolphin. Jessica told The Champion, “We’ve only ever seen her once prior to this, the …

A SENIOR Clare County Council official has said that the local authority expects there to be an oral hearing into plans for Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon. At Tuesday’s meeting of West Clare Municipal District, Senior Engineer Sean Lenihan said, “We published the CPO last June, submissions were to be received by An Bord Pleanála in September, there were 12 or 13 submissions all of which are receiving the required attention both from ourselves and the Board. “We are getting ready for an oral hearing, we imagine there will be an oral hearing, but that’s subject to the Board’s decision. They have alluded to the fact that there will most likely be one, but they haven’t actually given us a date.” He said they had thought there would have been progress by this stage, but it should come within three months. “We were hoping to have news by the end of April, which was last Friday, but what we got from …

AN Ennis hair and beauty salon expects to see 200 people in its first week back trading following a relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions across the country. Monday saw the return of hairdressers and other personal services, alongside other measures including the phased reopening of retail and the resumption of religious services in churches. Bridget Haren Hair and Beauty Salon on Woodquay opened at 9.30am on Monday to welcome its first clients in months, with staff on site since 8am busily preparing to ensure everything was in place. Perspex screens, mask wearing and sanitiser is the new normal when it comes to getting a hair-cut. Bridget told The Champion, “It’s going great so far, there’s a good buzz and everybody is really happy and delighted that Ennis is opening back up again. “It’s great for everybody and next week we’ll have the retailers joining us in bringing a lot more atmosphere to the town. “Everything is by appointments only and we …

Senator calls on committee to explain its rationale in selecting controversial sculpture THE committee who chose a controversial public sculpture for Ennistymon have been called on to come forward and make a statement on the row that has erupted over the plan. Senator Martin Conway, a native of the town, insisted the proposed Púca of Ennistymon, a mythical half-man, half horse, must be “consigned to history”. The two-metre high sculpture was chosen for a site at the bottom of Church Hill, after an open competition, as part of a significant upgrade to the streetscape of the town. The artist who won the commission, Aidan Harte, told The Champion he believes the piece meets the brief of creating an “out-of-the-ordinary” piece that will entice visitors to stop and spend time in Ennistymon. However, anger at a perceived lack of public consultation and objections to the design, prompted Clare County Council to announce the pausing of the project. Senator Conway has now …

THE vaccination centre at the Radisson Blu Hotel will relocate to Limerick Racecourse in the coming weeks, UL Hospital Group has confirmed. This will affect a sizable number of people in the east and south east of county Clare in line for the vaccine in the coming weeks. With the opening up of hospitality services and the scaling up of the vaccination programme, plans are now being put in place to open a new vaccination centre at Limerick Racecourse on a phased basis during June. Having reviewed the anticipated vaccine supply availability for the coming months and the infrastructural requirements needed, the Limerick Racecourse facility has been identified as having the capability to provide that capacity. The relocation of the vaccination centre from the Radission Blu Hotel to Limerick Racecourse coincides with the resumption of hospitality services in line with the Government’s reopening plan. From an overall Mid-West perspective, the vaccination centres at Treacy’s West County Hotel, Ennis, and the …

THE sister of an Ennis teenager who tragically died in a drowning accident has described as “amazing” the response to a fundraising effort for Water Safety Ireland in memory of her brother. Danielle Kenneally’s brother Jack was just 15 when he and his friend Shay Moloney lost their lives after getting into difficulty swimming in a disused quarry. She decided to raise funds for WSI and create water safety awareness through her new business as she wanted to do “anything to save another family going through what we went through.” Danielle and her best friend Chantell Keane co-founded home fragrance business Wix and Wax last year, and this month they have decided to donate all profits from a specially created ‘Daisy snap-bar’ to WSI in memory of Jack. “I wanted to do something in his memory, and we have a bit of platform with the business to promote awareness of water safety. Now that we have the nice weather there will …

EAST Clare councillors have sunk a proposal that could have netted an annual €5 million windfall to Clare County Council for new rural waste water treatment facilities. Councillor Johnny Flynn withdrew a motion calling on the government to put a funding mechanism in place to place a one cent levy per 100 litres of water abstracted from Lough Derg, if this project to provide water to the Midlands and Dublin region goes ahead. The proposal met with opposition from East Clare councillors who described it as “premature”. With up to €10 million annually shared by Tipperary and Clare Clare County Councils, Coucillor Flynn told a recent Council meeting a new strategy could provide waste water treatment to 55 Clare unsewered towns and villages and could also support rural tourism, enterprises and housing. He pointed out his proposal wasn’t about whether this controversial project should go ahead or not and involved a request for An Bord Pleanála to include the new …