News

A CLINIC will be held in Ennis Primary Care Centre, Station Road, Ennis on Wednesday, January 18 as part of the Laura Brennan HPV vaccine catch-up programme. The programme is available for those aged under 25 years who were previously eligible but have not received the HPV vaccine yet. Eligible people can register on www.hpv.ie for an appointment for a free vaccine, which will be administered through HSE vaccination clinics and schools (2023). The programme is supported by Bernie and Larry Brennan, parents of the late Laura Brennan who campaigned for higher uptake of the HPV vaccine before her death from cervical cancer in 2019, aged 26. The most common cancer caused by the HPV virus is cervical cancer – cancer of the neck of the womb. However, the HPV virus can cause other cancers and conditions that can affect boys, and since September 2019, boys have also been offered the HPV vaccine. The more young people vaccinated – both …

ENNIS residents’ concerns over “haphazard development” and vacant homes at St Flannan’s Terrace have prompted calls for ‘Development and Design Guidelines’ to be drawn up for the area. A newly-formed residents association of St Flannan’s Terrace have made the request for the area which was built in the early 1900s and has been designated Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) under the Clare County Development Plan. Councillor Johnny Flynn at a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District urged his fellow councillors to support the residents in their call for guidelines to be drawn up under relevant planning legislation. “The procedure for such guidelines is laid out in Section 84 of the Planning and Development Act 2000 (as amended) together with advice on public consultation, enforcement etc,” he pointed out. The terrace constitutes 46 houses, six of which are unoccupied. “They are quite concerned about haphazard development occurring and some vacancy,” he said. He continued that because the terrace is an ACA design guidelines …

Over 1,100 school students are in Dublin’s RDS for the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE). The prestigious event showcases research and innovation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), is in-person this year for the first time since 2020, following two successful virtual exhibitions. At the heart of the exhibition are the 550 projects from 212 schools which span the categories of Technology; Biological and Ecological Sciences; Social and Behavioural Sciences; and Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences. Following judging by the 80 plus-person judging panel, the BT Young Scientist(s) & Technologist(s) of the Year 2023 will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday at 5.30pm. Below, we profile all of the Clare entries in this year’s competition. Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna has nine projects participating in this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition. Project: Does damaging Kelp affect its breaking strength? Category: Biological and ecological sciences Student: Ella Mooney …

IT is the only Clare town to have elected a Sinn Féin councillor in a generation, but it seems that Shannon also has a huge interest in the House of Windsor. With Prince Harry in the news this week due to the release of his memoir Spare, search engine specialists Digital Funnel examined Google Search data from around the Republic of Ireland, to find out where was Ireland’s most Royal obsessed town over the past year. According to their research Shannon was in tenth place for royal searches, scoring particularly high in terms of searches for Prince Philip. Ennis showed a little bit less interest in British royalty, finishing 13 places behind Shannon. It did score particularly high in searches for the Queen, well ahead of Shannon in that category. The results are weighted to take account of populations in the various towns around Ireland. JJ Lee of digitalfunnel.ie said they were a little surprising. “The first thing is having a …

THE “great endeavours” of world champion athlete ‘Honest’ John Purcell should be honoured in a more visible way, as the existing plaque at John O’Sullivan Lees Road is “not noticed”, says Mayor of Ennis Councillor Clare Colleran Molloy. A request for a more prominent memorial to the Ballymaley world record holder, following representations from the Purcell family, is now to be made to the Memorial Committee of Clare County Council. Councillor Colleran Molloy told a recent meeting of the Ennis Municipal District that members of the Purcell family had been in contact about the need for a new memorial. The track at John O’Suillivan Lees Road is dedicated to world champion ‘Honest’ John Purcell who reigned as world champion and world record holder for long jump, and for hop, step and jump in the 1880s.  John Purcell was born in Ballymaley in 1860 and died in San Francisco in 1904.   Councillor Colleran Molloy outlined that the existing dedication marker is a …

SIGNIFICANT reductions in scheduled care are to remain in force across UL Hospitals’ Group this week as the major internal incident declared on January 2 is stood down. According to the UL Hospitals’ Group, extraordinary measures taken across the group and in the community have helped reduced the extreme levels of overcrowding seen early last week at the Emergency Department at UHL. However, all acute hospitals in the region are operating above capacity and staff remain on high alert amid a surge of respiratory infection in the community that has not yet reached its peak. The Hospital Crisis Management Team continues to meet twice daily seven days a week. However, the major internal incident was stood down by UL Hospitals’ Group CEO Professor Colette Cowan on Monday, January 9. Day surgery at Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospitals remains cancelled until the end of this week as the day wards in these hospitals have been designated as surge capacity for …

The rate of reversal of planning permission decisions by Clare County Council is far higher than the national average according to the annual report of the Office of the Planning Regulator. In its Annual Overview of the Planning System 2021 it found that 4.4% of the decisions made by the Council were appealed, and of these 46.7% were reversed; the national average was just 27.7%. Another notable figure from the report was the finding that Clare County Council had a total of 164 sites designated as vacant and/or derelict; this contrasted with a figure from the Central Statistics Office for the county of 6,104. The report also showed that in 2021, 94% of planning applications were approved by Clare County Council, with just 6% refused. Clare County Council approved 1,157 applications during the year, with just 68 refused. The Clare approval rate is considerably higher than the national one, which is 88.5%. Commenting on the findings, Planning Regulator, Niall Cussen …

AN Ennis man who purchased a Toyota jeep for €43,000 in cash in €50 notes in February 2021 has made a renewed court bid to have Gardai return the jeep to him. At Ennis District Court this Wednesday, solicitor Daragh Hassett had before court a Police Property application on behalf of Ned Doherty (32) of St Michael’s Park, Ballymaley, Gort Road, Ennis for the return of his 20-2 Toyota Hilux jeep. Unemployed at the time, Mr Doherty purchased the jeep in cash from a County Roscommon car dealer on February 23 2021 but it was seized 10 days later as part of a wider Garda operation that also involved the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) on March 5 2021. Mr Hassett told the court that the vehicle was seized almost two years ago and Mr Doherty has yet to be charged in relation to any offence or for any application to be made by the State to permanently seize the vehicle. …