Ennis

UP-and-coming Ennis golfer Ronan Herbert took a big step forward in his promising golf career when he earned the right to play in the US Kids Golf European Championship, which was decided over a number of historic links in Scotland recently. The nine-year-old did not feature among the winners but was proud to represent his country and Ennis Golf Club and tee off with the world’s best young golfers, aged five to 18. More than 550 of them from 35 nations competed in what is Europe’s premier junior golf tournament. Ronan won his way to Scotland through winning the Irish final of the US Kids event in Portmarnock on April 10 last. On that occasion he shot a level-par round and over the Gullane links in Scotland’s East Lothian, he turned in respectable scores in very difficult weather conditions. Ronan,who plays off a handicap of 16, is a son of Leo and Jana Herbert and a pupil of Scoil Críost …

ENNIS will stage a prestigious event this month when the town hosts the Association of Irish Floral Artists National Flower Festival (AOIFA). It is expected that 4,000 people will come to Ennis during the festival. The epicentre of the weekend festival will be at Ennis Catherdral and St Columba’s Church of Ireland. All funds raised from the event will be donated to the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association. AOIFA comprises 90 clubs nationwide and has approximately 6,000 members. Every two years, members nominate a charity to lend their valuable support to. The organisation has been running for 40 years and this is the first time that the national executive has been based in Ennis. The formal festival opening ceremony will be held on Friday, June 19 at Ennis Cathedral at 8pm, with RTÉ GAA commentator and Mullagh man Marty Morrissey hosting the opening night. More than 100 floral exhibits will be on view the following day from 11.30am to 6pm …

A HERITAGE project in Clarecastle and Ballyea has established that more than 100 local men served in the British Army during World War I, while a local historian believes there are at least the same number again of men from the area that they don’t know about yet. The Clarecastle and Ballyea Heritage Group are continuing to collect stories about The Great War and parishioners involved and a number of people have come forward recently with medals, photographs and fascinating stories of their grandfathers’ roles in that war. “We’ve been at it for the last couple of months; we’re trying to build up a database for people from the parish of Clarecastle and Ballyea of people who might have gone off to The Great War. “We know the men who went off and were killed, we’ve plenty of information on them, but there’s a lot, we reckon from the parish, who went away and served, then came back and never …

THE past couple of months has seen plenty of activity at St Anne’s Special School in Ennis. As part of an Xcessible Youth Sport Initiative, the school has teamed up with Ennis Rugby Club to introduce tag rugby to some of their students. The initiative was held under the auspices of Munster Rugby and culminated with students and staff heading to Thomond Park to take on other schools who have also taken part in the programme throughout Munster. Donal McMahon was charged with running the programme on behalf of the local rugby club and had nothing but praise for all involved. “I was amazed at the enthusiasm and the skills which the students showed during the initiative. They were so quick to pick up the basic techniques and, obviously, enjoyed the programme. We had lots of fun and it was a hugely enjoyable project to be associated with. “Ennis Rugby Club has always been pro-active in teaming up with charities …

The former Our Lady’s Hospital in Ennis, along with its 16.65 acre site, has gone on the market with a guide price of €1.25 million. In a prime location on the Gort Road [Limerick to Galway route], a short distance from the town centre and the bypass link at Barefield, the site is currently zoned as a proposal site PS3 under the Ennis Town Development Plan 2008 – 2014, which has been extended until a new development plan is adopted. The main building comprises a detached three storey over basement former hospital facility completed in 1868 and extended to the rear c. 1900. The property was previously in use as a hospital and has an impressive limestone façade. The property is located in a predominantly commercial environment. The property is listed as a protected structure Ref: E150 under the Ennis Development Plan 2008 – 2014 and is also noted as an architectural conservation area. Conditional permission was granted on February …

It’s day two (Thursday) in the exam halls  for 3,000 Clare teenagers who are sitting the Junior and Leaving Certificate. Only a small number of Leaving Cert students at taking the engineering paper this morning but it will be the English paper 2 for everybody in the afternoon. For those following the Leaving Certificate  Applied course, exams include sign language and French/German/Spanish or Italian. Junior Cert students have Irish papers 1 and 2 today. Tomorrow brings geography, environmental and social studies and maths. The Leaving Certs it’s geography and maths paper 1, while the Leaving Cert Applied have maths applications and hotel catering and tourism.  

Gardaí are treating as suspicious a fire at a Traveller accommodation site at Knockanean, on the outskirts of Ennis, in the early hours of Sunday morning. Emergency services were alerted to the fire just off Junction 13 of the M18 motorway at around 4am. Fire tenders, an ambulance and the gardaí attended the scene. The house, which was unoccupied at the time, was engulfed in flames. Gardaí say they’re treating the fire as suspicious and are awaiting results of a forensic examination before determining the course of their investigation. Anyone with information on the incident or who may have been in the Tulla Road area around 4am on Sunday morning tare asked to contact the bgardai at Ennis on 065 684 8100.

WORK on replacing 17km of leaky old water pipes and more than 200 lead service connections in Ennis, which has started in the Market area and Old Barrack Street, is expected to save 1.34m litres of treated water every day, according to the Mayor of Ennis Municipal District, Councillor Johnny Flynn. Councillor Flynn, a civil engineer, said the Ennis water system provides potable water to approximately 30,000 people in Ennis and the neighbouring areas of Barefield, Crusheen, Clarecastle and Doora, and to businesses that employ over 10,000 people. “I am aware that the Ennis water reservoirs currently store slightly less than a day’s supply of water – which is below best practice – and when you combine that with nearly 50% leakage rates of treated water – treatment of the water costs about €1m each year – in the pipe network, there is a serious security of supply issue,” Mayor Flynn said. Poor water pressure in some housing areas and …