East Clare

The race is on to find Kilkishen’s next Lord and Lady, as a very different election campaign sprang into action this week, which will see quirky fundraising events being organised by the hopeful contestants in aid of the Kikishen Church Restoration Project.  

President Michael D Higgins will be in Scariff next month, where he will be celebrating the United Nations Year of the Co-operative by joining East Clare Community Co-op in celebrating its 25th anniversary.

THE Irish Seed Savers’ Association, based in Scariff, has completed construction on its new seed bank and processing facility, which will not only improve their storage needs but will also help expand operations by increasing their seed-saving capacity.  Matteo Pettiti is the garden co-ordinator at Seed Savers and together with Jo Newton, the seed coordinator, they will be running the facility, bringing all the processing and storage elements together under one environmentally friendly roof.  The seed bank and seed processing facility means that when a plant is harvested from the fields, it is brought to the seed bank where it is hung and dried in the solar space located at the southern end of the building. After that, it will be thrashed and processed, the seeds will be cleaned and then dried to a very good standard before they are stored and packaged.“We will be able to do everything under the one roof with a flow of work that goes …

THE race to become the first Mayor of Tuamgraney has gotten underway with five local candidiates in the field.They launched their campaigns last Saturday night and will be busy up to the June Bank Holiday when the election of mayor will be the centrepiece of Tuamgraney’s firtst ever Community Weekend.

A PAIR of white-tailed sea eagles who found love in East Clare are believed to be expecting chicks this month, making this the first confirmed breeding of the species in Ireland for 110 years. The four-year-old male and three-year-old female have settled near Mountshannon. It forms the first documented nesting attempt for the species in Ireland in over 100 years. The breeding pair was collected on the island of Frøya off the west coast of Norway and settled in the Mounshannon area in early 2011.The lovebirds were released separately from Killarney National Park, County Kerry, in 2008 and in 2009 as part of the white-tailed sea eagle reintroduction programme, developed and funded by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in partnership with Golden Eagle Trust.Although some pairs have established themselves in County Kerry in 2012, the nesting attempt in County Clare is the first known nesting since the reintroduction programme began. Historically, the white-tailed sea eagle was once …

HARBOUR Flights Ireland Ltd, whose base for operations is in Mountshannon, has just received planning permission for its sixth sea plane base to be located in Limerick City. An Bord Pleanála granted the application on Friday, April 20 and marks the end of Harbour Flights’ first phase of planning applications towards its overall strategy to connect Ireland via a commercial sea plane operation. Limerick City is now its sixth base with full planning in place for its intended operation which include Galway, Dublin, Cobh, Foynes and its main operation base on Lough Derg. Flights are not operational as of yet as the company is awaiting its Aircraft Operating Certificate from the Irish Aviation Authority. If successful, the seaplane operation between all six bases will be up and running. On September 20, 2011 Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd became the first IAA (Irish Aviation Authority) licensed Waterdrome base in the country.The company will now embark on phase two of its planning proposal …

The Irish Seed Savers Association has a new manager who is hoping to plant her roots in Seed Savers for some time to come. Lisa Duncan comes to the Scariff-based national charity from an administrative background in theatre, community dance, film and television and although she hasn’t had an association with gardening, other than as a hobby, she is looking forward to the new role. “It is a totally new venture for me. Apart from the fact that I would be a hobby gardener I would still have had a genuine interest and would have kept abreast of what Seed Savers was doing. I feel thrilled and very exciting because I have come at a really important time, as this is Seed Savers’ 21st year and there’s a real sense of all the jigsaw pieces slotting into place. We’ve got the buildings that we need and everything is starting to really work so we are coming of age and starting …

East Clare Heritage celebrates its 21st year this year and preparations are currently underway to mark the occasion as the Tuamgraney-based organisation opens for the new tourist season. The centre is located at St Cronan’s Church, which is the oldest church in continuous use in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, having been built prior to 964 AD. The church’s doorway, through which High King of Ireland, Brian Boru, entered over 1,000 years ago, is still intact. East Clare Heritage was formed in 1989 as a not-for-profit voluntary group, with the primary objective of protecting, promoting and ultimately creating access to the vast heritage of East Clare. In 1991, the then President of Ireland, Mary Robinson opened the East Clare Heritage Centre at St Cronán’s Church. The East Clare Heritage is a voluntary and community-based company dedicated to giving a future to our past. The company was formed in 1989 and within three years it had refurbished the 10th century church, …