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A CLARE teenage boy was blackmailed for money after he sent explicit images of himself to another person through social media. Gardaí in Clare are now urging parents to become better aware of their children’s online activity in light of the recent incident. Clare Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Triona Brooks has described the matter as “very upsetting and traumatic for the parent and teenager”. A report was made to gardaí by the teenager’s mother over the Christmas period. According to Sergeant Brooks the teenage boy believed he was in contact with a woman through Facebook and he sent the explicit pictures of himself to that person. Shortly after this a demand was made for a substantial amount of money, or else the pictures would be shared. “No money was given over and the link was shared with some of his friends but fortunately the link could not be opened,” she outlined. Sergeant Brooks has encouraged parents to speak to their …

  Nurses, doctors and health care workers in acute hospitals throughout the Mid-West have received a new vaccine against Covid-19 as part of a regional vaccination programme. This programme will see the vaccine administered to all staff in UL Hospitals’ Group, the HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare Organisation and other healthcare settings. Vaccination at University Hospital Limerick (UHL), got under way on Monday, and at University Maternity Hospital Limerick (UMHL) on Tuesday. Up to Tuesday evening, 490 staff in total had been vaccinated under the programme. By the end of the week, with plans at an advanced stage to start vaccination at Croom, Nenagh, Ennis and St John’s Hospital, it is envisaged that at least 1,500 healthcare workers will have received the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The Hospitals Group has a network of peer vaccinators who have been trained to administer the vaccines to staff, initially to those directly involved in patient care, including nursing, medical, healthcare assistants, allied …

THE EuroMillions winner who bought their ticket in Ennis has made contact with the National Lottery, it has been confirmed. The identity of the €500,000 winner still remains a mystery with more details expected to be released once the claim is fully processed. According to the National Lottery, due to the current restrictions on non-essential travel, the Clare player will be claiming their prize via an approved process, receiving their €500,000 cheque by post. The winning Quick Pick ticket was sold at The Paper Chase store in Ennis town centre. Store owner Sharon Casey has revealed that the EuroMillions top prize wasn’t the only big win for the lucky store in recent days. “We also had a winning ticket sharing the full house in Telly Bingo with a prize of €5,000 which is great. We are hoping for three in a row now, all we need is the jackpot.” She continued, “There’s been a lot of buzz since it was …

AMBITIOUS plans are in the pipeline to provide lighting at Scariff Riverside Park, in a three-part upgrade to the popular community amenity. The park, at Fossa Beg on the Feakle Road, was developed by Scariff Community Council in 2005, and consists of a playground, six outdoor adult exercise stations, and one station which is dedicated to wheelchair users. One particularly popular amenity is a 1km looped walk through an area of natural biodiversity. The community council has worked to install an information board highlighting local flora and fauna and containing information on the historic Scariff Workhouse Water Tower. In recent months, the council has secured funding of €25,000, with the support of Clare County Council, from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme. A further €31,500 has been sourced from the LEADER programme. Those monies, in addition to online fundraising through Gofundme, have enabled phase one and two of the park upgrade project. These involve the improvement of paths and the …

THERE has been an increase of 70% in the use of physical force to manage patients at Ennis’s Acute Psychiatric Unit, new figures show. The rise comes at a time when mental health experts say such measures should only be used in “exceptional” circumstances. A report from the Mental Health Commission shows there were 85 incidents, in 2019, when residents of the unit were physically restrained after they were judged to pose an immediate danger to themselves or to others. While there was a decrease nationally in the number of episodes of physical restraint in the country’s 65 approved inpatient psychiatric treatment centres, the facility in Ennis bucked that trend. There were 50 incidents of physical restraint at the unit in 2018 and 85 episodes involving 41 residents in 2019. In response to a query from The Champion, the Health Service Executive (HSE) Midwest, said it welcomed the report’s findings and is currently reviewing them. “While restrictive measures are sometimes …

HUMANITY’S interaction with the natural world is explored in two exciting projects from students of St Joseph’s Secondary School in Tulla, to be showcased at the BT Young Scientist and Technology (BTYSE) exhibition which takes place in a virtual format this year. Continuing their very successful participation in the annual event, the school has entries in the Chemical and Physical Science Category as well as in the Biological and Ecological Science Category, under the guidance and direction of Science and Maths teacher, Mairéad O’Brien. A team comprised of Róisín Sheedy and Saoirse Donnellan have created a piece of jewellery with the capacity to warn people about the dangers of high levels of UV light. The project, which aims to combat rising levels of skin cancer in Ireland, is entitled ‘Solar-powered chemistry: A study of chemical reaction rates in ultraviolet beads’. The work investigates how UV-responsive beads could be used to determine the levels of protection offered by products like sun …

By Gordon Deegan A Lahinch surfer has saved an ‘exhausted’ sheep from drowning after the sheep had fallen off a cliff edge at the Clare seaside resort. Johnny Casey was out surfing waves at Lahinch at the southern end of the beach when he spotted the ‘marooned’ sheep in a little cave on a ledge at the cliffs. Mr Casey said today that with the tide coming in, there was a real fear that the sheep would drown and he went about rescuing the female sheep. Recalling the recent rescue effort for the ewe, Mr Casey – who celebrates his 30th birthday this weekend – stated that he saw the sheep was “standing there motionless on the ledge. She ended up there after falling down the cliff”. He stated: “I paddled in when I saw the sheep. I got one more wave and off I went. I went over to her and she was quite shaken.” Mr Casey then went to the family home …

DAVID Crowe, a porter at Ennis Hospital, became the first Clare resident to be vaccinated at Ennis Hospital as part of the Covid-19 vaccination programme. The arrival of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in the Clare capital town on Wednesday has been welcomed by frontline healthcare workers, who have been challenged as never before throughout the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The first healthcare worker at the hospital to be vaccinated was Dr Mary Kennedy of the Medical Assessment Unit, who received her vaccine from staff nurse, Caroline Mulligan. Dr Kennedy said: “This is a day we have all been waiting for in Ennis Hospital and the arrival of these vaccines gives us all hope that an end is in sight.” The first batch of vaccines was delivered to Ennis Hospital on Wednesday morning, and it is planned initially to administer 50 doses per day to healthcare staff. For those who received vaccinations today, a second vaccination is required after a three-week period. This …