East Clare

EFFORTS are currently underway to resolve issues with drainage at the Bouleyree and Rine Rivers, which led to severe flooding last year.

Preparations for the annual Scariff Show are in the final stages and a date for the event has been confirmed for Saturday, September 4, at the Showgrounds.

THE council has come in for some criticism regarding the drainage funding for 2010 as funds are already over extended in the Killaloe electoral area. Councillor Joe Cooney raised a motion at last week’s Killaloe Electoral Area meeting calling for the council to carry out road works and drainage works on a section of road from Ayle Cross to Crown-Crown Bridge on the Tulla to Feakle Road.Arising from a reply from the council, which stated there was currently no funding available, Councillor Cooney stressed that a budget for such drainage projects of €20,000 for the whole county was “melodeon”. “I’m not happy with the council’s response this section of road gets flooded every year. €20,000 for drainage works countywide is melodeon,” he said.Seán Lenihan, senior executive engineer, stated that the area’s allocation was spent on the river at the back of the hall in Broadford and in a couple of other areas where arterial works were needed. However, he accepted …

  THE Waterways Ireland Scariff Harbour Festival enthralled and engrossed the people of East Clare last weekend as distinguished guests Roy Garland, Edna O’Brien, Mary Black and Jeanette Ervine descended on the fair shores of the town. Opening the festival on Friday, Northern Ireland peace activist Roy Garland remarked on the first harbour festival, which was opened by the late David Ervine and Mark Durkan in 2003, which, he said, added significance to the occasion as Mr Ervine and Mr Garland shared the same goals. He spoke about his background growing up on the Shankhill Road in North Belfast and of the similar experiences that he and Mr Ervine would have had growing up in the city. “We saw the futility of the old ways of division and conflict. We both wanted to create space for everyone. On one occasion in 1995, I shared a platform on Belfast’s Falls Road with former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, the SDLP’s Mark Durkan, Presbyterian …

CIARA Donnellan turned one last Friday and celebrated the day with her family and friends in Tulla. To look at this happy, bubbly baby, the pride and joy of her parents, Sharon and Michael, you wouldn’t think there was a thing bothering her.

THE McNamara family from Ballymacdonnell will be ending an era of primary education in St Patrick’s National School in O’Callaghan’s Mills this September when their youngest, Edel, starts secondary school.

FOUR separate appeals have been lodged with An Board Pleanála this week objecting to planning permission granted to a controversial application which proposes to service a seaplane operation out of Mountshannon.Applicants Harbour Air Ireland Ltd were granted planning permission last month to install a floating pontoon, mooring anchors, access gangway, reinforced concrete slipway and inspection hardstanding, workstore, parking area and associated infrastructure for the berthing and inspection of a sea plane at Mountshannon/Dooros. Following local objections and criticism of the proposed development, two local groups have lodged appeals against the county council’s decision to grant permission. Furthermore, two State bodies have also lodged appeals with An Bord Pleanála.  In an appeal document submitted to the planning board by the Sandycove Residents’ Association, they cite health and safety issues, environmental issues and the negative impact on the daily lives of the Sandycove residents as the grounds for their appeal. John O’Brien, chairman of the group, claimed that among the health and …

THIS year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Edna O’Brien’s novel The Country Girls, a book that daringly reflected life in rural Ireland and at the time shocked, angered yet captivated her local community.It is timely so that the renowned author returns to East Clare this year for the Scariff Harbour Festival for a unique public interview. Declan Kiberd, Professor of Anglo Irish Literature at University College Dublin, will talk to Edna about her life, times and works at Scariff Library on Saturday, July 31 at 3pm.The Country Girls was the first of several works including novels, short stories and plays from Edna O’Brien. The prolific writer has had an extraordinary literary career with many works firmly rooted in the landscape in which she grew up.Harry O’Meara of the Scariff Harbour Festival Committee described the upcoming event as significant, not just for the festival and County Clare but for a much wider audience. “Of the many interviews in …