Regional

A book club in Nimes in the South of France has been named Book Club of the Year and will be presented with the award this weekend at Ennis Book Club Festival. The club will be represented by Hélène Granon, who has been a book club member for 15 years.“We are a group of more than 15 people, mostly women,” she said. “We meet on the fourth Friday of each month. Most of the members are English or Irish, one is Swedish, one is Dutch. Just now I am reading Light of Evening by Edna O’Brien. I must say I have wonderful Irish friends and they make me read Irish books.”Hélène also takes part in organising a festival of cinema in Nimes every year. Last year, it was devoted to Irish cinema and received some support from the Irish Government. “Belonging to the book club is something very important for me. People from different countries talking about a book in …

DOZENS of participants in adult education were presented with certificates at the Lemass Library last Friday morning by Minister of State Jan O’Sullivan, who stressed the importance of continuing with education.Mayor of Shannon, Mary Brennan, said she was very pleased the work in adult education in the town had been recognised with the opening of the VEC centre at Brú na Sionna.Moira Greene, co-ordinator of the Clare Adult Basic Education Services, also spoke and said the overall benefits of education often aren’t recognised fully. “If you listen to the news and current affairs discussions, there is a lot of talk of unemployment and the need to upskill and the importance of education to get jobs but sometimes people don’t focus on the wider benefits of learning.”She referred to British research that stated those who returned to education were less likely to be depressed and more likely to give up cigarettes. Ms Greene said that it is very important for people …

BISHOP Kieran O’Reilly was at St Conaire’s on Tuesday  for the launch of a new prayer initiative.The school has published a pocket-sized prayer booklet for its pupils. It is entitled Prayers go up, Blessings go down and it contains a reflection for each day of the week along with a piece of scripture. The booklet is child friendly and designed to support the work of parents, the parish and the school.Headmaster Peter Walsh said the decision to proceed with the initiative came about following dialogue among teachers. “It came from staff discussions about prayers in the school and we then worked with the parish, so it’s a combination of the staff and the parish.”He said the school still retains a Catholic ethos, although it caters for children from various backgrounds. “We are a Catholic school but we do have children from all faiths and none. We think it’s very important for those that do profess the Catholic faith that we …

INDISCRIMINATE parking of cars along a narrow country road in a residential area has led to the temporary closure of the state-of-the-art €187,000 Cratloe playground during weekends and bank holidays.Residents in Gallows Hill are up in arms over the difficulties they encounter when entering and exiting their homes, as motorists visiting Cratloe Woods and the nearby playground are parking across their driveways. They are also worried that anti-social behaviour could return to haunt them, with claims that some outsiders are sleeping overnight in a Coillte car park after the removal of a barrier.However, concern has been expressed that families and children will suffer from the loss of the valuable recreational amenity if the closure calls are heeded.Residents’ concerns have prompted the closure of the playground on Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays for the foreseeable future. According to a statement issued by Cratloe Community Playground Co-op, this decision has regretfully had to be taken for health and safety reasons.“Visitors are coming …

THE co-founder of Irish international aid organisation Bóthar is taking on the walk of his life in aid of those who walk daily for their lives.Peter Ireton will celebrate his 60th birthday with a 60km fundraising walk, which will take him and supporters along a mostly waterside route from the Clare campus of the University of Limerick to Killaloe and back on Saturday, April 28.The Limerick man founded Bóthar with farming leader, the late TJ Maher, in 1991 and grew it from a one-off gesture of sending an airlift of cows to Africa to mark the Limerick Treaty 300 celebrations to a charity with a €7 million annual turnover.The mammoth ‘Siúl Go Dtí Seasca’ will see Peter not alone walking one kilometre for every year of his life but 10km for each of the 6km that, on average, people in the developing world walk every day for water for their basic survival.Peter is asking as many people as possible to …

Fifteen-year-old Craig McGill has raised €700 for the Irish Cancer Society but he is hoping to make it to the €1,000 mark within the next two weeks. From his mother’s café in the Market Hall, the Gort teenager made the short walk next door to Gruaig Deas on Saturday. His reflection in the window of the salon showed a young man, tall, taller than his mother, sporting medium-length dark blonde hair. A short time later he re-emerged beaming, and undoubtedly bald, from the salon. The fourth-year Gort Community School student had his head shaved as part of the nationwide Today FM Shave or Dye campaign. “A lot of people were shocked that it was all gone,” Craig told The Clare Champion. “Two other people in school did it and they got a number one or zero, which is very short. But when I got it done, I got rid of it all,” he explained. Like everyone else, Craig sometimes gets …

The Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO) Diaspora Project is set to expand to over 2,500 parishes volunteer communities across Ireland North and South. This expansion led to the setting up last week of a separate South-East Galway Ireland Reaching Out team covering five clusters of parishes in the area. A South-East Galway parish steering group made up of local volunteers was formed at a public meeting of parishes in the area last week. This group will take responsibility for the development of the programme in the locality. The group consists of volunteers from the parishes of Ardrahan, Aughrim, Ballymacward, Clontuskert, Eyrecourt, Fohenagh, Gort, Kilchreest, Kilconnell, Killimor, Killure, Loughrea, Peterswell, Portumna, Tiernascragh and Woodford.The steering group met to discuss the formation of a formal group to progress the objectives of the Ireland Reaching Out project and to organise the Week of Welcomes 2012 in the South-East Galway parishes. The meeting was well-attended and was chaired by John Joe Conwell, parish liaison …

NEARLY 100 people will take to the streets of Ennistymon on two wheels this Friday as part of a Green Schools initiative, which could see the convoy becoming a regular occurrence.In the biggest event of its kind in the county, 90 pupils and staff of Ennistymon Vocational School will undertake a 12km cycle around the North Clare town in an effort to find a safe route to cycle to school. “This is the biggest event we have done with teenagers. Studies have found that they are the least active of every group in society and there are huge issues around fitness and teenagers, so this is one way of tackling it,” explained Róisín Ní Ghairbhith, green schools travel education officer. The idea behind the cycle is to show pupils safe routes to school, the cycling possibilities in the area around the school, show them their ability to cycle some distance, encourage them to get fit and show them the bike …