Ennis

THE position of planters and bollards on the segregated cycle way on Clonroadmore are forcing motorists to cross the centre line of traffic it has been claimed. Councillor Johnny Flynn told the monthly meeting of the Ennis Municipal District that the planters and bollards from the front of St Flannan’s to the Kilrush Road should be adapted. He insisted this is needed so that drivers exiting estates and private houses “can do so without crossing the centre line onto oncoming traffic”. Eamon O’Dea, Senior Executive Engineer, in his written reply stated, “The Road Design office have confirmed that all the junctions comply with DMURS. On the tighter junction radius the driver has to approach the junction square to the main road and then rotate to the left. If the driver proceeds to cut the corner they will either mount the kerb (hit the bollard) or have to cross the centre line to turn left. The purpose of the tighter radii …

WORKS aimed at connecting parts of Ennis with walking trails are set to begin next year the Ennis Municipal District has confirmed. Funding totalling €950,000 has been secured by the council under the government’s Active Travel grant scheme. The plans were detailed at a recent meeting of the Ennis Municipal District where Councillor Johnny Flynn had sought an update on the Connecting and Co-Creating Ennis project which was undertaken in 2020 by the Intelligence Unit (IU) of the School of Architecture at UL. The project was undertaken on the invitation of the Director of Service of the Ennis MD executive Carmel Kirby, in conjunction with the elected members. The councillor outlined that this project looked at Connecting, by re-joining parts of Ennis physically and socially and Co-Creating, getting citizens and visitors actively involved in the development of Ennis. Councillor Flynn described the document as “a very important piece of work”. The students and academics who worked on the project spent …

Fiona McGarry speaks to former Flannan’s teacher Liam Ashe whose NGO’s school in Kolkata is changing lives AT 76 years of age, Doonbeg native Liam Ashe is a great advertisement for what he describes as “late adulthood”. A teacher with four decades of experience, Liam is the driving force behind an NGO that is currently teaching 320 children in one of the most deprived parts of Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal. He describes psychologist Maureen Gaffney as his “guru” and lives her precept that if you are active in retirement, you are still in late adulthood. That, in part, explains the huge energy which the long-timer Ballyea resident puts into Balo Children Ireland which he set up after a visit to India over 15 years ago. Liam is known to several generations for his work at St Flannan’s College, Ennis, where he taught History and Geography for 40 years. “I idolised those subjects,” he told The Champion. …

IF you are wandering around Ennis on the afternoon of St Stephen’s Day, you might see some heads bobbing in the Fergus. Don’t worry! That will be members of the Ennis Sub Aqua Club taking part in the annual sponsored Fin Swim. Gerry Gilroy, chair of the club said, “The annual Fin Swim been going on for over 20 years, and is always great fun. All funds raised from the activity go to support the search and recovery activities undertaken by the club.” The swimmers enter the chilly river at Droichead na Gabhar near Lees Road, float along the quiet stretches before rounding the bend to Victoria Bridge on the Lahinch Road. The rapids at the Mill have torn a few wet suits over the years so they get out upstream of the Mill Bridge and jump back into the dark waters at the Mill wheel. The ducks and geese of the Post Office field look on in surprise at …

A CLARECASTLE woman has been appointed as the Irish Ambassador to Singapore. The ambassadorial appointment of Sarah McGrath to the prestigious role was among 22 approved by the Government at a meeting last week and has been described as “a proud day for County Clare”. Sarah is a daughter of Anne McGrath and is a native of Clarecastle but has lived in Dublin for some time. She has worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs for the past 20 years where she is currently Director of the UN and Multilateral Unit, Development Cooperation and Africa Division. Deputy Joe Carey said, “I have just spoken with Sarah McGrath to congratulate her on being appointed the next Irish Ambassador to Singapore, Brunei and Timor Leste.” “This year’s ambassadorial nominees made history with women due to take up half the roles for the first time ever. Sarah will take her place in this historic announcement as the first female Irish Ambassador to Singapore, …

AN elderly woman using a walking frame was forced to step onto the road due to cars being parked on the footpath at a popular Ennis beauty spot in an incident described as “upsetting and frightening”, a meeting of local councillors heard. The Ennis Municipal District is now to make the case to gardaí to have double yellow lines installed at the entrance to Ballybeg Woods after “health and safety concerns” about motorists parking on the footpath at the entrance was highlighted. Councillor Clare Colleran Molloy raised the issue at a recent meeting of the municipal district calling for a review of the area to be undertaken to address “ongoing parking on the footpath approaching the Ballybeg Road entrance to the Ballybeg Woods”. She said the current situation “is preventing pedestrians, pedestrians with child buggies and wheelchair users from using the footpath, thereby forcing them to walk on the road”. The councillor acknowledged recent improvement works carried out at Ballybeg …

AN Ennis toyshop will feature in a brand new television show airing this week on RTÉ. Little Ones on Parnell Street, in the county town, which specialises in traditional wooden toys and children’s gifts, is among the stores to appear in The Toy Shop which airs on RTÉ One on Wednesday evening at 9.30pm and again on Christmas day on RTÉ 2 at 8.45pm. The programme has been made by Atom Films, the makers of the acclaimed Older Than Ireland, Abbeyfealegood and The Irish Wedding. Fiona Ryan, owner of Little Ones, told The Champion she was delighted to take part in the programme and to be able to share the joy that toy shops can bring into people’s lives. “I was contacted by Atom Films to take part in the programme, I don’t know how they found out about us but I think originally they were looking at doing a programme on toys in general, then they wanted to focus …

ENNIS students Aodha Marrinan and Sarah O’Rourke were among sixteen University of Limerick students to recently receive scholarships at a virtual awards ceremony as part of the Johnson & Johnson Ireland Women in STEM2D (WiSTEM2D) Award Programme. Both Aodha and Sarah study Biomedical Engineering at UL. Now in its sixth year at UL, the WiSTEM2D programme is run in collaboration with Lero – the Science Foundation Research Centre for Software, and will provide the scholarship recipients with extensive industry mentoring and leadership training. WiSTEM2D refers to Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, Manufacturing and Design. The WiSTEM2D programme underlines J&J’s commitment to developing and implementing high-impact strategies to support female students undertaking STEM2D degree courses at UL and in universities around the world.  Currently, there are approximately 117,800 people across Ireland who are working in jobs that require STEM skills. However, the CSO reports that just 25% of these roles are performed by women, with just 5% in leadership roles.Whilst there has been a general …