Home » Regional » North Clare (page 31)

North Clare

Nine million hear Clare woman’s voice

A North Clare woman wowed judges on the hit television programme, The Voice UK at the weekend. More than nine million people tuned in as Burren resident, Sharon Murphy sang Bob Dylan’s Forever Young in the show’s blind auditions broadcast on BBC 1 on Saturday. “To be honest, I have done gigs here and done gigs in other countries but I was not prepared for my nerves. It is very surreal because you are dealing with cameras. I normally play the guitar but this time I decided to focus on my voice because that is the show,” she explained. “I got on the stage and there were two Xs on the ground. You do the rehearsal and there is one X and then, when I went out, there were two so I didn’t know which one to stand on and then, on the very last note, I thought, this might not happen for me,” she added. Throughout the performance it …

Read More »
alphonsus cullinan, bishop of waterford

Lahinch man new Bishop of Waterford and Lismore

His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Lahinch native, Fr Alphonsus Cullinan as the new Bishop of Waterford & Lismore. Fifty-five-year-old, Fr Cullinan is a son of Christy and Rita and has four sisters and five brothers. He is parish priest in Rathkeale, County Limerick His family moved to Limerick city where he attended the Salesians for early education, John F Kennedy National School and the Crescent College Comprehensive (SJ) for his secondary education. From 1978-1981 he attended Mary Immaculate College of Education Limerick and qualified as a primary teacher and taught for six years in Castleconnell, County Limerick. He worked part-time during that time for four years with the Bunratty Castle Entertainers before going to Spain where he taught English for two years in a school in Valladolid. Fr Cullinan studied at Saint Patrick’s College Maynooth from 1989-95 where he completed an STL (Licentiate in Theology). He was ordained by Bishop Jeremiah Newman in 1994 in Saint John’s Cathedral, Limerick, …

Read More »

Parking problems at Mullaghmore

A CLARE County Council official has acknowledged that if there are issues with road safety at Mullaghmore that he will do anything within his role to “push any measures” that are required through. Senior executive engineer, Hugh McGrath made these comments at a recent Killaloe Electoral Area meeting, which covers the Mullaghmore area of North Clare, following a motion tabled by Councillor Pat Hayes. Councillor Hayes proposed that a review of the parking facilities at Mullaghmore be carried out in the interest of traffic movements and safety for road users and walkers. The Fianna Fáil councillor said that, particularly during the summer months, parking is a significant problem, with “cars parking all over the place”. He said there are issues surrounding public safety, as a result of having no traffic management plan at the popular location. Councillor Hayes said he was not aware whether parking issues were the full responsibility of the National Parks and Wildlife Service or not and …

Read More »

March 17 deadline for Aldi planning decision

A decision on whether or not a discount supermarket can be built on the site of Ennistymon Mart is due to be made before St Patrick’s Day. Clare County Council received an application in the past week from John Spain Associates, on behalf of Aldi Stores, for a proposed shop with 82 car-parking spaces on the mart site at Church Hill and Circular Road. The site has been the subject of controversy in recent years, with local farmers fighting to keep the mart open. In December 2014, officers of the Ennistymon branch of Irish Farmers’ Association, in an unprecedented move in the county, resigned their positions. They took the decision to give up their roles in protest over the sale of the mart to Aldi and what they saw as a lack of support from Clare IFA on the matter. The branch committee members took the united action “to highlight our frustration with the IFA on their approach to the …

Read More »

A golden glow on Cliffs of Moher

The Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience has been awarded the first ever Heritage Gold award in the annual CIE Awards of Excellence. CIE Tours International staged their 25th annual Awards of Excellence at Dublin Castle, where Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring presented the award to the Clare County Council owned visitor attraction. The Heritage Gold award is presented to the single supplier in any category who has contributed most to the success of CIE Tours International last year. 24,334 surveys were completed by CIE customers who visited the Cliffs of Moher as part of a tour in 2014 and an overall satisfaction rating of 95.5% was achieved by the attraction, which last year saw overall visitor numbers break the one million mark for the first time.

Read More »

Horses starve to death in Ballinruan

“THE worst form of cruelty” was how a local woman described the treatment of three horses which are said to have starved to death in Ballinruan. Its understood that two of the horses she was referring to died some time ago, while the third one died relatively recently. The woman said, “It was shocking, it would have taken them a few months to die and they would have been in agony. They hadn’t had a pick to eat and it’s happening every winter; someone keeps putting the horses in the same place. “They obviously weren’t getting a scrap of hay and they would have had a horrible death. The cold weather probably just finished them off.” She said it has been a big topic of discussion in the area lately. “A lot of people are talking about it and they are disgusted by it.” The woman also said that a foal was one of the dead animals. “One of the …

Read More »

Homes to go in new Blake’s Corner plan

FOUR houses and business premises could be knocked in the latest attempt to address Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon, one of the county’s worst bottlenecks. One couple, due to move into their first family home this week, has organised a meeting seeking public support in what they predict will be a major battle with Clare County Council and the National Roads Authority. Sheena Clancy, her husband, John and their four-year-old son, Jamie, are “devastated” after finding out they could lose the house they have spent the past seven months renovating and which they plan to move into this Friday. Sheena rented the property at Bridge Street for three years before the couple bought the building at auction last May, to renovate as their family home. Now, the family has discovered that the building is likely to be the subject of a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) because it is in the path of a proposed new road. Sheena and John were paying …

Read More »

Blake’s and Linnane’s to stay

A report on one of the county’s most controversial traffic blackspots has recommended the construction of a new relief road and bridge. Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon has been the scene of traffic chaos for several months each year as hundreds of thousands of people make their way to the Cliffs of Moher. In recent years the corner has been the subject of much controversy with local representatives calling for the demolition of the well-known Blake’s and Linnane’s buildings while local heritage activists have called for their retention. Many North Clare councillors have, for the past decade, requested that Clare County Council knock the buildings arguing that the nature of the busy junction would lead to the death of a pedestrian. A group called Save Ennistymon’s Heritage campaigned for the buildings to be retained claiming they were important to the town’s visual amenity and heritage. It now appears that an inner relief road will be constructed in the village cutting out …

Read More »