Regional

SEEING the relief in people’s faces after being rescued from stranded vessels has been very rewarding, according to a local Killaloe Coast Guard volunteer. Audrey Kenny and her husband Jason were recently honoured for their more than 20 years’ combined service as volunteers by the Irish Coast Guard. She told The Champion that people really appreciate being rescued when vessels run aground or cut out the lake. Coastal Unit Sector Manager, Damien Kelleher presented ten-year service medals to Jason and Audrey Kenny at Pier Head, Killaloe recently. Audrey is the longest serving female member of the unit, who has completed all the necessary training qualifications. The second female member is Lucy Whenday, who joined the unit a few years ago. Since Audrey joined ten years ago, she recalled three or four women had joined and subsequently left the unit. Most of the group who joined with them more than 10 years ago have left for different reasons. In May 2012, …

FRIDAY, September 16, will see the Clare launch of former IRA prisoner Jim (Jaz) McCann’s memoir 6,000 Days at the Oakwood Hotel. On the night the author will be in conversation with Donna McGettigan. Arrested at the age of 20 after attempting to kill a police officer, McCann was sentenced to life imprisonment and he remained in custody from 1976 until 1994. He was one of hundreds of Republican prisoners who refused to wear a prison uniform, claiming they were political prionsers, which led to them being locked in their cells, wearing only a blanket, for more than four years, in grim conditions. The death of the hunger strikers in 1981 was a huge historical moment, and he knew several of them. In the book he also recalls life in the IRA, the deprivation of the years spent in prison, the relationships with friends and comrades including the hunger strikers, his role in the prison breakout of 1983 which saw …

WATER quality in parts of Ennis has been described as “deplorable” resulting in illness and malfunctioning appliances for concerned householders. Homes in Ard na Greine, St Michael’s Villas and St Flannan’s Terrace have been affected by “ongoing difficulities” with the quality of their water supply a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District heard this week. Councillor Paul Murphy highlighted the issue while urging the Ennis Municipal District and Irish Water to facilitate mains rehabilitation and road reinstatement works between Captain Mac’s Junction and Station Cross roundabout. Ian Chaplin, Acting Senior Executive Engineer confirmed that the Ennis Municipal District and Irish Water have been in discussions and a meeting is due to take place to finalise plans for the works. He added that the council is aiming to schedule works for a time that “least inconveniences the public”. According to Councillor Murphy these works were due to be carried out during Christmas of last year. He said that the issue needs …

VIEWERS tuning into Friday’s return of the Late Late Show to our screens were in for a big surprise when some very familiar faces were beamed to the nation. The popular Ennis Brass Band played a starring role in the opening sequence of the first show of the new season, playing its famous theme tune along with two other bands surrounded by dancers. Grainne Kearney of the Ennis Brass Band told The Champion they were sworn to secrecy about their involvement with the Late Late ahead of the broadcast, and they have been delighted with the reaction to their appearance. The filming was done in Limerick’s Na Piarsaigh GAA club with Grainne saying it was a fantastic experience for the band. Explaining how they got involved she said, “They got in touch and told us they wanted to do something to show that Ireland is up and running, that people are back doing their hobbies and enjoying themselves. I’m not …

KILMURRY Ibrickane Development Project CLG has been granted planning permission for a multi-purpose community development including a hall, gym, cafe, viewing area, enterprise space and car park at Pháirc Naomh Mhuire in Quilty. An architectural design statement which accompanied the application said, “Beyond the actual architectural and functional qualities of the building, the structure creates a balance and establishes a dialogue with the coastal location. The application noted that the paritcular area in the centre of the village was lacking a heart “and a space symbolically constituting the centre for all activities, a place to meet, talk and have fun”. They said the key idea was that the space can be used flexibly for community activities of various kinds giveing examples of meetings, conferences, entertainment, sports and group learning events. The structure, they wrote, is intended to meet the needs of the local and neighburing communities, surrounding schools as well as the local GAA club. “The proposed design creates a …

A PERMANENT marker has been put in place in the townland of Killula, close to Shannon Airport, to commemorate a 1961 plane crash in which four people were killed. The crash happened early on the morning of January 27, 1961, when an air corps De Havilland DH.104 Dove crashed while on a training exercise. There were five people on board, four of whom were killed. A person involved in the preparations for Tuesday’s event said, “The air corps are laying a marker stone on a site where an Air Corps plane crashed in 1961, four people lost their lives in that crash, it was on the approach to Shannon, in a place called Killula, on the way in. “There was a temporary marker on the site but they’ve put on a permanent one, and they came down to do that on Tuesday.” He said that the crash saw the deaths of two air corps pilots and two air traffic control …

A YOUNG East Clare man, who runs a thriving beekeeping supplies shop, is a proof that it’s good advice to ‘bloom where you are planted’.   After his family moved from Holland to Tuamgraney, 23 years ago, Chris Jeuken, found his niche working with the skills and resources that nature gave him. He credits his father, Harry, an organic farmer, with inspiring him to be a self-starter. Chris moved from making and selling chicken coops, at the age of 14, to beekeeping and, most recently, to producing high-quality bee hives. His business, Apis Bee Supplies, which he started in 2017, as “a way to keep busy on wet days”, now boasts 2,000 customers nationwide. Chris admitted that adjusting to a new language and country, at the age of five, was a bit overwhelming. “Now it’s home,” he said. “There is less stress here and I like the friendliness and openness of the people, the greenness and the beauty.” Chris attended …

SIBLINGS often disagree but one set of sisters from Clare seem to agree on one thing at least: the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Biochemistry at University of Limerick being the perfect pathway for all their ambitions. As almost 3,300 new graduates were conferred at UL over five days of the 2022 Autumn Conferring Ceremonies recently, one family had extra reason to celebrate. The Ryan family from Killaloe reached a significant milestone as twin sisters, Anna and Rosaleen graduated from the BSc in Industrial Biochemistry in the Faculty of Science and Engineering recently. While it wouldn’t be too uncommon for siblings to complete the same course of study, in the case of Anna and Rosaleen they were following a career path that their two older sisters had previously walked before them. Anna and Rosaleen’s sister Kate completed the BSc in Industrial Biochemistry in 2018 and eldest sister Sally also graduated from the programme in 2016, later gaining a doctorate in …