East Clare

  IN opening the 66th Clare Drama Festival, Deputy Michael McNamara took his cue from Shakespeare as he introduced the opening act with, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” “I have been lucky to have been afforded many parts on and before this stage – actor, drama festival goer, even model on one occasion to raise funds for the national school but it’s a particular privilege to be here tonight as a local TD and to be able to pay tribute to the generations of dedicated festival committee members and supporters who have played their part in ensuring that the Clare Drama Festival is now considered one of the foremost showpieces of the amateur drama movement in Ireland,” Deputy McNamara recalled. He said the annual event could not be such a success …

THERE is a new Miss Clare and this year the title went to Lauren Guilfoyle from Feakle, who will represent her county at the Miss Ireland competition in Dublin in June.

Snowflakes fell in the sunshine at the Church of Ireland in Kilkishen last Monday morning and indication perhaps that, despite the harsh conditions, a bright future lies ahead for the rejuvenation of the East Clare village. Deputy Pat Breen officially turned the sod kick starting the construction phase of the Kilkishen Church of Ireland restoration project on Monday morning where a large crowd gathered to mark this momentous occasion. The site was also blessed by local parish priest Fr Donal Dwyer and chairperson of the restoration committee Mike Hogan welcomed those present. He said after much talk and umpteen fundraising events the committee was finally at the important stage to progress the project to the construction phase. “This project has been talked about for so long but we have finally, with the help of a lot of people, made it happen. We are at the stage where we are convinced that this is the place for our cultural centre, which …

Suffering from unemployment and emigration of its young people, the community of East Clare has not been immune to the effects of the economic downturn, but a newly formed group is aiming to tackle this issue head on. Rather than accepting continued austerity, the newly-formed East Clare Development group, chaired by Sean Bugler, has set itself the objective of developing a sustainable, prosperous and vibrant future for East Clare. One of the objectives of the group is to put together a development plan. With this in mind three sub-committees were established to focus on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Farming and Developing a Unique Tourist Experience. Their work will include developing initiatives to create, support and encourage local employment opportunities to give young people the option to live and work in their own community. “Farming has been important in the past to East Clare and will equally be important into the future and this sub-group will work on driving initiatives that …

AN East Clare-based company is hoping to harvest the talents of at least four people in the next few weeks and up to nine more by the year’s end as the two-man business expands.

UNVEILING The Tree of Generations sculpture at Lough Graney’s Kids’ Corner in Flagmount on Friday, President Michael D Higgins told the community their initiative was showing all Irish people how to seek the light.The project was led by children of the Lough Graney Youth Club but had an inter-generational approach that involved the whole community of Flagmount.President Higgins said the sculpture “will always be there as a symbol of what was possible”. “It is important to have these kinds of visions and it is very inspiring to be invited to communities like that of Lough Graney to see them taking the initiative, leading the way and offering practical manifestations of what is our alternative. Isn’t it very interesting that we are all out in the open now and how different that is to that time when repression and bigotry and exclusion put women into the Magdalene Laundries. Isn’t it great to see that Ireland long gone. So we must learn …

LAST Sunday, a group of 20 gathered in Tulla in protest of the Government’s policy to bailout banks rather than people.The newly formed group is determined to follow Ballyhea’s example and have regular gatherings every Sunday from now on to create awareness. The gathering itself is not linked to any political party and is not intended to offer solutions but to initiate discussions about possible alternatives.Speaking about the protest, Stiofán Schmeitz, from Glendree in Feakle, said leading by example is the key to trigger other initiatives and that was what happened in this case as they followed the initiative taken by the community in Ballyhea, County Cork. “I think it is important that each protest or meeting is established by local people and not by outsiders. There are 3.7 million people living outside Dublin. Rather than trying to gather 100,000 people for a protest in Dublin, imagine 50 to 100 people gathering in each and every town across the country …

Concern is mounting in East Clare arising from a leaked draft report from the Department of Transport that seeks the abolishment of the 35 community-based rural transport companies, one of which is the East Clare-based Clare Accessible Transport.