Ennis

A TELEGRAM sent by Eamon De Valera to his wife following his election as MP for Clare has been placed on display at the Clare Museum in Ennis.

ENNIS Chamber is appealing to people to support businesses that have been hit by flooding in the run-up to Christmas.

The Ennis & District Soroptimist Club marked the 45 years since their foundation with a celebration lunch at the Old Ground Hotel. Members of the national organisation travelled from all over the country to join in the celebrations.

SOME of the most recognisable names in Irish and international literature will participate in next year’s Ennis Book Club Festival, the largest event of its kind anywhere in Ireland and the UK.Supported by Clare County Library, the three-day programme of events from March 5 to March 7 is expected to attract hundreds of book club members and book lovers from all over Europe and North America. The festival will also feature Ireland’s first ‘Book Club of the Year Award’ and a professional development workshop for library staff.Among the contributors to the festival will be Lionel Shriver, prolific journalist and Orange Prize-winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Post-Birthday World; Joseph O’Connor, journalist, screenwriter and author of 10 Irish number one bestsellers including Cowboys and Indians, Desperadoes, The Salesman and Inishowen; Tim Pat Coogan, biographer, historian, journalist and writer of Michael Collins and Ireland in the Twentieth Century; and Fiona Looney, columnist, playwright, scriptwriter and media personality.Other …

ENNIS retailers are hoping to benefit from an anticipated gold strike in the county town in the coming weeks.The launch this week, by Ennis Chamber, of the Ennis Gold gift voucher project is being welcomed by the nearly 60 local businesses that are participating in the scheme. It’s seen as a perfect way to create additional local spending at time when it is expected that the traditional Christmas spree will be somewhat curtailed due to the economic downturn.Chamber president Guy Flouch has urged local people to back the scheme. “Consider that every time you buy one of these vouchers, you are ensuring that money is spent with local retailers and not returned to the coffers of a company with its base in Dublin or further afield. Shop local and save local jobs,” he said.He added, “Another important dimension of the scheme is that members of the Clare diaspora, currently living in London or Boston or Sydney, can buy the vouchers …

SINGLE men and women from all over Clare will be coming together to unlock the secret to relationship bliss at a singles event in Ennis on Saturday, November 21.Organised by the daughter of renowned matchmaker Willie Daly, Gráinne Daly and Dutch native Sophie Heusy, the lock ’n’ key singles night was arranged to meet local demand. The event takes place in Tom Steele’s Bar from 9pm. Sophie explained that following on from the matchmaking festival in Lisdoonvarna earlier this year, she and Gráinne were quizzed by singles who wanted to know how to meet other singles and where to meet them. On the back of this, they decided to organise a singles night with a difference. “We didn’t want to do the regular singles night and put a load of singles together in a room and just see what happens. “So we went online and came up with this lock ’n’ key event. What happens is we will give out …

CLARE Library has been honoured for its innovation in the integration of the Irish language in its services as it received the 2009 Gradam Gaeilge an Chláir award. At an awards ceremony in the De Valera library on Monday evening, Seán Ó Ceallaigh, ­Cathaoirleach of An Clár as Gaeilge Teo, the ­language promotion group who organise the award scheme, presented County Librarian Helen Walsh with a specially commissioned plaque. The scheme, now in its fifth year, is specifically directed at companies and organisations in the commercial and public sector that promote the use of Irish both internally and externally.Speaking at the awards ceremony, Ó Ceallaigh said that he was delighted to present the award to Clare Library Services in recognition of the innovative way the service had approached the integration of Irish in its operation. He made specific reference to the wide range of Irish language books that were easily available in every branch library and the highly acclaimed website …

RESIDENTS of Cloughleigh insist that they will continue to fight against the proposed youth and community resource building, which is to be built on the Cloughleigh Road.