East Clare

Unemployment in East Clare is currently two and a half times greater than it was in January 2008, according to statistics recorded at the Tulla Social Welfare office, and two-thirds of those out of work are men.

In 2008, Chrys Gardener and her husband Bill Carini immigrated to Ireland from Ithaca in New York State to further pursue their careers as landscape gardeners.

A garda chief in Killaloe has issued an appeal to those in the East Clare area to be aware of bogus callers, particularly in light of the current problems regarding water shortages and flooding.

Plans to develop a seaplane tourism business with a base in Mountshannon have been met with local opposition.

An independent review of the ESB’s management of rivers and dams in Ireland, including the River Shannon, has been sought by flooding victims in Clonlara.

Edel Greene and Margaret McNamara, cuairteoirí with Cuimhneamh an Chláir, visited a group of East Clare residents in Raheen last week, where each individual recalled past memories of predicting the weather, ghost stories and socialising.With seven and eight-day weather forecasts available to us at the click of a mouse these days, it will seem alien to many that the older members of the community had to look to the sky to find out what tomorrow’s weather would be like.Edel and Margaret, in their recording session with East Clare residents Flan O’Brien, Jimmy Lynch, Patrick Joe Nihill, Eleanor Murphy and Louis Corbett, discussed what kind of signs they looked out for to know if bad weather was in store.Some recalled that if they saw two rainbows in the sky, or a ring around the moon or saw “the moon lying on its back,” then it wasn’t a good sign. Others recalled the goats coming down the mountain and into their houses …

THE Sliabh Aughty Players has been in existence for 20 years. It was formed late in 1989, when it was decided to reform and re-establish a drama group in the Mountshannon area.Its predecessor, The Mountshannon Players, was originally founded in the late-1960s, performing both one-act and three-act plays in Mountshannon hall. Despite the long-running tradition of drama in the area, the group became inactive throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with members joining the Scariff Drama Group.In 1989, the old Mountshannon-based group was re-formed under the name Sliabh Aughty Players, with Maud Nash again at the helm. Maud was one of the founding members of the group and one of the few remaining continuous links with the group to this day. Maud’s name was synonymous with drama and she was the backbone of the group for many years.The group’s first production was John B Keane’s The Field, which was to prove the perfect vessel to sail the Sliabh Aughty Players to …

CLARE County Council has issued a compulsory purchase order notice for confirmation to An Board Pleanála in respect of lands at Clashmore, Feakle, which it requires to carry out necessary road junction improvements.The mayor, county manager and county secretary signed off on the compulsory purchase order on December 1 and in a public document, the authority outlined its intention of improving the junction between Scariff and Feakle in the townland of Clashmore. An area of agricultural land measuring 0.0158 hectares and 0.0456 hectares of a public road, which are both in the ownership of James Denis Anthony Conway, is the subject of the compulsory purchase order. If the order is confirmed by An Board Pleanála, it will authorise the council to acquire this land for the purpose of carrying out junction improvement works, which will consist of setting back boundaries in order to improve sight distance for traffic travelling between Scariff and Feakle. This is where the L80381 and R461 …