East Clare

The Christian Community Church based at Drewsborough in Tuamgraney held an open day for its congregation and members of the local community last weekend. Described as a great success by the Reverend Malcolm Allsop, many turned up for the meet-and-greet event, which included an art exhibition, choral singing and children’s activities.“It was an amazing day, contrary to all expectations with the weather and religion is not exactly a best seller, a lot of people turned out. There were a number of people who came that aren’t connected to the church who were invited and some people who I’d never seen before who had just heard about it,” Rev Allsop said. He added that last Sunday was Whit Sunday, an important Christian festival and he believed this gave wind to their sails. The Christian Community Church has begun holding a gathering for those who have died on the first Sunday of the month at 7.30pm and their next service takes place …

EAST Clare County Councillors have expressed dissatisfaction with the recent review of the county’s winter maintenance strategy which omits roads on the county boundary from the normal winter salting service.The area councillors received a briefing on the review of the winter maintenance strategy by senior executive engineer Tom Tiernan at a recent Killaloe Electoral Area meeting. Mr Tiernan explained that the roads for salting across the county were prioritised at three levels. Priority one, are routes that are treated during all weather events and these roads include motorways and national routes. While priority two routes are to be treated as part of the normal winter service but may have interruptions to treatment in certain severe weather events or in circumstances where information suggests the risk is minimum. Meanwhile, priority three routes are not treated as part of the normal service but may receive intermittent treatment during certain severe weather events.  Councillor Pat Burke said he was “disappointed” that the priority …

EAST Clare’s internationally renowned fiddler, Martin Hayes, together with Steve Cooney, will perform as part of a gala concert to help with ongoing fundraising efforts for Brigit’s Hearth this weekend. The event, which takes place at 4pm on Sunday in Scariff Community College, has been organised to help raise funds for the childcare facility which started out 10 years ago. Speaking about Brigit’s Hearth, musician Martin Hayes said, “It’s a local East Clare project and it’s a project that I think has a positive influence in a fundamental way on children’s lives. I try to do a few benefits for local things and I am very happy to do so for this event. “Lina Pelaez, who runs Brigit’s Hearth, is my partner and I met her through this project. I played for the opening of it. First of all, one of the most striking things about it is the architecture of the building because it tries to establish a home. …

The 2011 Iniscealtra Arts Festival was officially opened last Saturdayby civil and human rights activist, Joycean scholar and presidential candidate, Senator David Norris.

Plans to introduce a traffic management system for the town of Scariff are expected to go to the consultation phase in the coming weeks arising from a number of public meetings held in the area in the past month.

The participants of Living Scenes at St Joseph’s Secondary School Tulla will stage their production of Bring Me Roses While I Can Smell Them, a play written and directed by the late Sarah Lennon from Quin. Sarah passed away recently aged 43 after losing her battle with cancer and following her death the Living Scenes group decided to run their production over two nights, with all proceeds going to Milford Hospice.  Sarah’s association with drama goes back to the mid-1980s, when she was a member of Icarus Drama Group in Shannon. She was responsible for re-establishing the Quin Players 10 years ago, who every year have put on a production, among them Jane Eyre and An Inspector Calls.Over the last five years Sarah attended annual Drama League of Ireland courses ranging from script writing, direction, stage management and lighting and wrote Bring Me Roses for the Living Scenes Drama module at St Joseph’s Secondary School.Sarah initially joined the NUIG-run project …

US president Barack Obama came to Moneygall this week to reclaim his roots but the relatives of the Tulla Brady-Browne family are also retracing their roots and are appealing for information about their ancestral home. Newgrove House in Tulla was the former home of the Brady-Browne family. It was demolished in the mid-1960s but the basement remains and is home to a protected colony of bats. Dublin-based David Browne has issued an appeal to locals for any photographs, memorabilia, artefacts or memories of Newgrove and its lands in an effort to learn more about the house that his grandfather was born in in 1887 and which was occupied by his grand-uncle up until his death nearly 75 years go. “My own relationship with Newgrove is that my grandfather’s brother was Thomas Henry Brady-Browne, he was the last occupant of the house until his death at the Clonmoney races in 1937. I understand that the house fell into disrepair after that …

THE wind of change was blowing in Spanish Point this week for the participants of the St Joseph’s Secondary School Living Scenes programme, who decided to go fly a kite.