East Clare

Lough Graney was where a young Slievanore woman learned to row a boat, an unusual talent for someone from this region. However, on April 15, 1912 the same young woman had to use this skill to row herself and the passengers on lifeboat 13 to safety.Mary Agatha Glynn, aged 19, was one of the few steerage passengers to survive Titanic and on Sunday a very special tribute was paid to her as people travelled to her native parish to remember what happened that fateful day.  The event attracted upwards of 300 people and began at 9.20am, marking 100 years and seven hours after Titanic sank and the time when lifeboat 13 was rescued. In preparation for this occasion members of the organising committee tracked down Mary Agatha Glynn’s husband’s niece, Peggy who lived near them in Washington over a 10 year period. Peggy, who now lives in Kerry, told the committee her uncle Pat O’Donohue paid for her to come …

The 75th anniversary of Captain Thomas Henry Brady-Browne’s death was commemorated at the Quakerstown point-to-point races recently. The Tulla man was master of hounds with the Clare Hunt after the reorganisation of the hunt in 1925. The Brady-Browne Memorial Race commemorated Captain Brady-Browne, the last member of the family to live at Newgrove House in Tulla. The captain had served as an officer in the Clare Artillery from 1900 to 1913 and in France during the First World War but died tragically in 1937 at Clonmoney Races. He was riding in the Clare Hunt point-to-point at Clonmoney when he suffered a heart attack during the first race and died after falling from his horse, Lord Francis.The Brady-Browne family were accomplished riders and Captain Brady-Browne’s nephew, Thomas Cullinan, won the Aintree Grand National in 1930 on Shaun Goilín. Captain Brady-Browne was a keen horseman himself and was a regular in the winner’s enclosure at the Clare Hunt races. His brother, Windham, …

Two East Clare teens were involved the production of a new original short film that had its world premiere recently, in association with the Fresh Film Festival.Alfie Hollingsworth and Dylan Bickerton from Feakle were among 11 young Irish filmmakers who came together from all over the country in the first initiative of its kind in Ireland and set out to achieve funding and on their own to conceive, shoot and create an original short film shot to professional industry standards.The two 16-year-olds, who are students at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Tulla, were involved in the production of film, entitled Captured. Alfie took on the role of editor, while Dylan was director of photography. The pair were previously recognised for their filmmaking talents having scooped a highly commended award for the production of The Elwood Killing: The Beginning, at the Young Irish Filmmaker’s Awards in 2011 and the Brown Bag Animation Award in 2010 for their animated film, Reflection. The …

The East Clare Heritage Centre will once again open its doors to the arts as the award-winning Celtic ­Tradition Concert Series returns this week for another season of weekly concerts at St Cronan’s Church, Tuamgraney. Winner of the Best Tourism Hospitality Award 2011 at the Ennis Chamber of Commerce/FBD Awards, the concert series showcases the music and culture Clare has to offer. The series was founded by well-known Clare ­entertainer Kate Purcell and now enters its third season, where it will continue to present a sample of the very best of Clare entertainment in a friendly, cosy environment in historical surroundings. The weekly concerts take place each Monday night from 8pm until 9.30pm at the East Clare Heritage Centre in St Cronan’s Church, Tuamgraney. The church itself is a very popular and unusual venue as it dates back to the time of Brian Boru, whose brother was Abbot of the monastery on the site. The church is used by the …

One-hundred years ago, a remarkable East Clare woman was rescued from the Titanic and on Sunday, April 15, the 100th anniversary of the day she was rescued by the Carpathia, Mary Agatha Glynn will be commemorated in her own parish in East Clare.Born in Slievanore, a townland about three miles from Flagmount, in February 1893, Mary Agatha Glynn was one of the first steerage passengers to survive Titanic. She was the elder daughter in a family 10 born to Pat Glynn and his wife, Ellen Guilfoyle. Aged 19, Mary Agatha had used a ticket purchased by the Glynn family to board the Titanic at Queenstown, Cobh, Cork and was intending to travel on to her cousin, Mrs D Courtnay, in Capital Hill, Washington.It is not clear what Mary’s connection was with 13 young people from Adergoole in County Mayo or if she was merely sharing cabins with the group but for whatever reasons, the fate of 11 of the group …

Clare County Council isn’t in a position to extend Quin Sewerage Scheme to take in an extra three houses, a meeting has been told.Councillor Sonny Scanlan has requested the council to investigate the feasibility of extending the public sewerage scheme to Frank Enright’s on the Tulla Road.Councillor Scanlan claimed at an Ennis Electoral Area meeting on Monday that a bridge constructed by the Office of Public Works (OPW) wasn’t high enough to take the huge volume of water during the flooding of the Rhine River in the winter of 2009 and 2010.The Fine Gael councillor said three houses had their septic tanks flooded while two of them had about one foot of water in their houses, making them unusable for several months.He asked if the council could extend the public sewerage scheme about 100 yards to take in these three houses. Senior executive engineer Eamon O’Dea told the meeting the council could request the Department of the Environment to sanction …

A ‘record’ number of riders and members of the public turned out for a charity ride organised by the Clare Hunt in aid of Clare Suicide Bereavement Support, which took place on Sunday in Quin. “This is definitely a record for any charity ride we have done. I expect about 130 or 120 normally but we had 275 riders. It was incredible. If there was a Guinness Book of Records for it we would have been there. We faxed hunts from Galway and Limerick and we thought we might have a representative or two from them but we had representatives from every hunt, with up to eight or 10 riders from each,” said Pat Hannon, PRO with The Clare Hunt.The charity ride followed a route from Quin to Doora cross-country and back via Castlefergus. Pat explained they chose Clare Suicide Bereavement Support, as there had been a number of hunt members who had been bereaved by suicide. “There is no …

PLANNING permission has been granted to Clare County Council for a pedestrian crossing and footpath in Quin. However, while the efforts have been welcomed locally, a number of concerns have been raised seeking a different location for the works.