News

LOCAL communities and businesses on the Shannon Estuary Way are to benefit from a year long Destination Development Programme to help boost economic growth for the rural communities along this newly launched tourist route. Located just off the Wild Atlantic Way, the Shannon Estuary Way was developed by Fáilte Ireland, together with Clare and Limerick City and County Councils, and is set to become a key tourist attraction for the Mid West Region. The route is 207km in length and is the first in a series of Wild Atlantic Way looped drives aimed at increasing visitor ‘dwell time’ and spend in local communities. The drive showcases the spectacular stretch of water, where the Ireland’s longest river, the Shannon, meets the mighty Atlantic Ocean and offers a beautiful drive along the scenic and unspoilt coastlines of Limerick and Clare, taking visitors through the picturesque towns and villages, heritage sites and many visitor attractions featured within the route. The Shannon Estuary Way, …

AN AMBITIOUS reimagining of the North Clare Sports and Amenity Park could see the popular facility transformed. Since 2020, there has been intensive collaborative work involving local schools, artists, clubs, businesses and organisations in the community and local catchment area in creating a new vision for the amenity. Brian Gaynor of Green Pine Consultants presented the initial draft plans to the North clare Community and stakeholders on this week, via Zoom. “We feel these themes will be a very special development for the community of North Clare and our local areas with particular benefit in tourism, education, cultural/heritage and sports fields,” said Lisdoonvarna Fáilte Director, Councillor Joe Garrihy. “The collective and shared commitment of our groups align very much with the concept and proposal under development and we are delighted to share the planning stages with the community now at this early stage for comment, observation and input.” Significant funding support to the tune of €210,000 has been secured towards delivering …

Management strategy will link attractions on all sides of lake and spread the benefits THE full implementation of the Holy Island Visitor Management Plan is identified as a key objective in a new five-year Lough Derg Visitor Experience Development Plan, reports Dan Danaher. Clare County Council is developing a management plan to facilitate sustainable tourism from this sixth century holy island, which is connected across lake waters to a necklace of historic lakeside villages and harbours. Chief executive officer, Pat Dowling described the development of Holy Island as a local visitor and tourist attraction as an “exciting new project” for the coming years. “The council will be developing the island as a unique feature on Lough Derg. Holy Island has a long and wonderful history and it will be a very important addition to our tourism product in Clare.” Padraig Giblin of Sportworld Netting, Scariff, said it will be very important for towns and villages in East Clare to connect …

A TULLA grandmother said she cried with relief when Gardaí told her of a major breakthrough in the long-running investigation into a spate of thefts at the local graveyard. Carol Hoey was one of a number of people contacted by Gardaí after most of the stolen items were discovered during a search, last week, in Ennis. Last September, the family was devastated when the grave of Carol’s late mother and that of her baby granddaughter were disturbed, and several items of sentimental value taken. The incidents were among more than 20 reported to Gardaí since January of last year. “I cried when I got the call from the Garda here in Tulla,” Carol told The Champion. “We can be sure now that our loved ones can rest. It feels great to have some kind of closure. At last, we can go to visit the graves without having a pain in our stomach and holding our breath in fear over what …

RESCUE figures for 2020 show that the volunteer lifeboat crew at the RNLI’s station in Kilrush launched nine times and brought 11 people to safety. Three of those launches were carried out in the hours of darkness. The figures were released as RNLI launched its Mayday Mile appeal which is calling on the public to cover one mile on any day in the month of May to help raise funds for the voluntary service. Kilrush RNLI Helm Charlie Glynn said, “Our callouts last year ranged from a young child blown out to sea on an inflatable to rescuing three people from a sinking vessel in gale force conditions. “For every callout there is a person behind it who is worried that something bad may have happed to a loved one and we are there to help find them and bring them home. “Thank you to everyone who supports the work of the volunteer lifeboat crews. From the vessel we use …

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of fewer than five additional cases of Covid-19 in Clare and 10 additional deaths related to Covid-19 nationally. Of the deaths reported today four occurred in April, five occurred March and one in February. The median age of those who died was 84 years and the age range was 77 – 97 years. There has been a total of 4,884 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Monday, April 26, the HPSC has been notified of 426 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 247,489* confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 203 are men / 221 are women 74% are under 45 years of age The median age is 29 years old 156 in Dublin, 39 in Donegal, 28 in Kildare, 28 in Meath, 25 in Limerick and the remaining 150 cases are spread across 18 other counties**. As of 8am today, …

In the first in a series of ‘Day in the Life’ interviews with healthcare workers redeployed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dan Danaher speaks with Kilkee physiotherapist Deirdre Muldoon A KILKEE senior physiotherapist has lauded the teamwork and flexibility shown by all healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Deirdre Muldoon praised staff who assumed a bigger workload providing health services when their colleagues were redeployed to other duties. When former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar publicly announced major restrictions for the first national lockdown, Deirdre wasn’t surprised, as there were rumblings in the health services that these strict measures were in the pipeline. At the outset of the pandemic, Deirdre admits what was happening in Italy was quite scary. “There was some relief that I wasn’t working in the acute sector any more and I was worried for family, friends, aunts and uncles as there was a big unknown. Thankfully, the first wave didn’t turn out to be as bad as what we …

A JUDGE has praised an Ennis personal fitness trainer for posting workout videos of himself on Facebook and Instagram shortly after sustaining injuries when a taxi driver drove at him, writes Gordon Deegan. At Ennis Circuit Court, Judge Brian O’Callaghan stated that it is to Kris Flynn’s credit and not to his debit that he was out promoting himself online so soon after a traffic incident in the Aldi car park in Ennis on June 11 2017. Judge O’Callaghan made his comments before awarding €18,500 in general damages to Mr Flynn (36) of Cappahard, Ennis for the back, neck and shoulder injuries sustained and an additional €1,720 for medical and physio expenses. An investigator employed by the taxi-driver, Michael Maher’s insurers played a showreel of Mr Flynn working out at a gym lifting various weights to the court. Two were posted the same day of the incident and counsel for Mr Maher’s insurers, Donal O’Rourke BL stated that the videos …