North Clare

A CLARE man in Australia and has spent the last three years working on a project that could potentially be worth millions of dollars to the country’s fishing economy.

A team of local people got their hands dirty this week when they participated in a clean-up of part of the Cullinagh River, which flows through Ennistymon and is visible from the bridge on the town’s Lahinch Road. According to a spokesperson for the Ennistymon and District Community Organisation (EDCO), the group who organised and undertook the clean-up, the river has the potential to be a significant resource for the town, but, because of its condition, it has been under-utilised for a number of years.

A FORMER NASA scientist will be among those keeping a close eye on the skies over north Clare this weekend. Over the years, Ireland’s premier astronomy gathering has been the Whirlpool Star Party, which was usually held in Offaly, but this year the venue will be Clare and it has been renamed the Burren Starparty.The event is organised by the Shannonside Astronomy Club, in conjunction with Shannon Development, and takes place this Saturday. It is set to be a one-day and one night astronomy extravaganza.There will be public astronomical lectures, a telescope workshop and a night sky presentation in preparation for an evening observation session. The Burren is extremely suitable for this, as it has so little light pollution, ensuring some of the darkest skies in Europe.The location for the event will be the Burren Coast Hotel in Ballyvaughan and it will be split into two sections; morning/afternoon and evening/night time. Weather permitting, night-time viewing will be based at the …

TWO north Clare food firms scooped prestigious national awards this week. The Burren Smokehouse and Visitor Centre in Lisdoonvarna won the best producer accolade at the Good Food Ireland Awards, while Inagh Farmhouse Cheese won the Best Export Organic Product 2009 title at the National Organic Awards.

FOR the second year in a row, Ennistymon are preparing to host a guilt-free culinary treat when the Clare Harvest Banquet takes place early next month. Organising an event that would stand up as something which people would want to support, even if the money was not going to charity, was a challenge embraced by Sinéad Ní Gharbhith.

A well-known scientist who spent the past year working with a North Clare project recently won a coveted British award for her ability to communicate scientific research to a non-specialist audience.

A BRIEF stint as a drug dealer in Ros na Rún may have caused something of an identity crisis for a performer with Clare roots and recently the Leaving Cert inspired him to shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Electric Picnic. So, what next for Aindrias De Staic?Son of well-known Ennistymon man Eddie Stack, Aindrias is no stranger to story-telling or to music or indeed to comedy and he has cemented all three together in building his career as a performer. Splitting his time between Melbourne and Galway, Aindrias has just returned from three weeks taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he won a coveted ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award for his show The Summer I Did the Leaving.

A WELL-known North Clare business has adopted a creative method of increasing productivity while also inciting people to get out and take a closer look at their surroundings. The proprietors of Linnalla Pure Irish Ice Cream are urging people to put on their boots, grab their buckets and gather berries.