North Clare

MEMBERS of the Irish Diaspora who are unable to travel home to attend family funerals can now view a live stream of the funeral on the internet. ‘Funerals Live’ is the brainchild of Inagh businessman, Alan Foudy, who has plans to create up to 10 new jobs over the next 18 months as the innovative service is rolled out. “Wherever in the world our client may be, whether it is in Australia or the United States, this service provides them with a private weblink to a live stream of a funeral service or the option of a video recording of the entire service, including the burial, within two hours of its conclusion,” he explained. Mr Foudy said the idea behind this venture arose after he was asked to make a DVD of a funeral service for relatives and friends of the deceased whose funeral they could not attend. “The general feeling was that a live webcast or a delayed broadcast …

LISDOONVARNA and September go hand in hand in terms of colour, music and craic, but the Spa town also had a great festival atmosphere for this St Patrick’s weekend. In fact the North Clare town stole a march on the rest of the country by staging its annual parade on Saturday. The organisers were thrilled by the level of participation, saying it well exceeded their expectations.

By Nicola Corless A KILFENORA woman was recently named Hartford Connecticut’s St Patrick’s Day Parade Person of the Year and will lead the parade alongside the Grand Marshall on Saturday. Dr Pauline Nagle Olsen was commended on the honour by the Governor of Connecticut, Dannel Malloy, and the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, Nancy Wyman. Dr Nagle Olsen was also presented with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition by Congressman for Connecticut John B Larson at a ceremony to recognise her 40-years commitment to her community and her voluntary work, which has directly helped at least 30,000 of the city’s poorest inhabitants. Dr Olsen is a founder of Malta House of Care, a mobile clinic providing free medical care to the uninsured in the greater Hartford area. It is nearly 60 years since Pauline Nagle left her native North Clare, but despite making Farmington, Connecticut her home, she has returned many times over the years. Having studied at UCD and completed …

TOURISM is one of the main drivers of the Clare economy and in the North Clare region the Burren plays a pivotal role in this sector. Next Wednesday night, an information and network event will be held to showcase the activities, adventures, food and heritage of the Burren Region. The Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark, in conjunction with the Burren Ecotourism Network, will host The Burren Tourism Story 2014, at the Pavilion, Lisdoonvarna from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. The event will feature information stands, food tastings, the launch of the Burren’s first adventure and activities trail, and guest presentations from author and green business lecturer Prof. Finbarr Bradley; head of programmes and delivery Fáilte Ireland, Fiona Monaghan and award-winning travel writer and journalist, Pól O’Conghaile. Tina O’Dwyer, sustainable tourism co-ordinator, Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark explained that the primary purpose of the upcoming event will be to highlight the variety and quality of visitor attractions and activities on offer …

CLARE  Senator, Martin Conway has said that the roll out of community courts across the country could revolutionise our justice system and would provide a local solution to local problems. Senator Conway’s comments coincide with a Private Members’ Motion on the subject tabled by him in the Seanad this Tuesday. “I will be using the time during my Private Members’ Motion in the Seanad to call on Minister Shatter to establish a community court in Dublin as a pilot project, with the hope that if successful, the model could be rolled out on a regional basis,” the Fine Seanad Spokesperson on Justice said. Continuing, he said, “I am convinced that we need to change how we deal with low-level crime at a local level. By placing the court at the heart of the community and approaching problems in their local context, community courts can offer a pragmatic approach that deals effectively with low level crime. “We need greater community engagement …

Nicola Corless PROPOSALS to buy a derelict building in Ennistymon, install public toilets in it and hire a year-round caretaker to maintain it have been ruled out because Clare County Council is not flush with money. Fine Gael Councillor Bill Slattery told a recent area meeting that business people are not happy with people doing their business without spending a penny. Council Slattery asked Clare County Council to provide public toilets in Ennistymon “as a matter of urgency, either by upgrading the existing toilets, which are closed, or alternatively provide new toilets at a different location”. He said, “Certain publicans are annoyed that some people were going into the pub, doing their business and walking out and saying ‘thank you very much’ or in many cases not saying it”. Councillor Richard Nagle recalled, “A Superloo was sanctioned for the town 12 or 13 years ago but it proved impossible to find a suitable site that was accessible but a solution …

TWO North Clare groups have come together for a special exhibition, which will open in Ennistymon Public Library on Tuesday next. A Sunbeam To Warm You is a joint exhibition by the Tubber/Boston Women’s Art Group and the Ennistymon Art Group. It will open on Monday and mark Adult Learners’ Week. Both groups are run as part of the Clare Adult Basic Education Service, Adult and Community Education, Limerick and Clare ETB. Tubber/Boston Women’s Art Group was started after a local group approached Clare VEC in 2011 looking for a funded art course. Since then, there have been three courses held at the local community hall under the direction of art tutor, Marie Connole. The exhibition features work from the most recent TBWAG course, which ran in the winter of 2013. Ten women from the area met for two hours each week to learn the basics of oil painting. During the course, they experimented with colour theory and developed individual …

LAURYN Canny rose to fame in the recent RTÉ drama Amber but many people in Clare already knew her. Born and reared in Dublin, she spends many holidays with her aunts, uncles and cousins in Corofin and Newmarket-on-Fergus. Lauryn’s path into acting didn’t bring her through formal training. Hers started instead as many other journeys do. “I was walking down the road one day when a casting director pulled up. It was for something completely different – I didn’t end up getting it – she asked me if I wanted to audition for a film. It was kind of strange. My mam [Nickki] started Googling to make sure it was ok to go for the audition and she found the audition for Amber and she asked me if I wanted to do the audition for that and I did. I did the audition on a Tuesday, got the part on Wednesday and was filming by Monday.” It is three years …