Regional

ON Monday night’s episode of The Apprentice, Bill Cullen said “you’re fired” to Shannon’s Chris Harold, thus ending his chance of getting a €200,000 investment in his business. The Shannon man spoke to The Clare Champion about the highs and lows of the programme and how life really was behind the scenes. Even though he was fired, Chris said the experience was “well worth it”.“It’s hard to be negative about something that I got so much out of. I think to be able to see your weaknesses and strengths from outside yourself, that’s how you work on things,” he explained.Going into the process, Chris said he had two goals, “I wasn’t going to lie and I wasn’t going to screw anyone over”.Chris sat in the final boardroom on four previous occasions, only to be fired on Monday’s show but he said he learned to pick himself back up very early on and fight his own corner.“I was rubbing people up …

TRIBUTES were paid this week to the late Mrs Margaret O’Dea, 66 O’Connell Street who lived a long, eventful and colourful life. It was recalled that many of her deeds included the treatment of people in Birmingam during the bombing blitz during the Second World War and during her many years as midwife, she also helped bring generations of people into the world. Aged 92 years, the former Margaret O’Brien from Cappafeean, Crusheen, died at Kilcolgan Nursing Home on Friday last. She was married to the late  Michael O’Dea and for many years and was a familar figure in the running of the well-known grocery shop and bar business on O’Connell Street.The eldest of a family of six girls and five boys, her parents were Johnny O’Brien and Mary Ann (nee McMahon).Educated locally, she emigrated to England in 1937 before the war years. After taking up residence in Birmingham, she trained as a general nurse and later as a midwife …

Clare County Council engineers have come under fire for the exclusion of key sections of regional roads in East Clare from Phase One of the local authority’s latest Winter Maintenance Programme.Mayor of Clare, Councillor Pat Hayes and other East Clare councillors complained about the absence of parts of regional roads from Feakle to Scariff, Whitegate to Portumna and Killanena to Gort at a recent Killaloe Electoral Area meeting.The issue was raised by Councillor Hayes, who asked the council for an update into what plans have been put in place by the area office concerning grit, salt and sandbags to ensure they are in place for immediate use in the case of emergencies.Councillor Hayes claimed the current Winter Maintenance Programme published by the council was not approved by local councillors, despite a previous request for input into the preparation of this plan.The Mayor of Clare stressed it was vital that sandbags, grit and salt should be made readily available as quickly …

TUAMGRANEY man, Colm O’Brien has been nominated as an outstanding volunteer for the Ireland Involved Awards for his involvement with the vegetarian society. Volunteer Ireland recently announced the shortlist of 33 outstanding volunteers for this year’s Ireland Involved Awards having received hundreds of entries to the competition. Colm has been chosen as a finalist in the animals and environment category of the competition for his work with the Vegetarian Society of Ireland (VSI), which promotes the positive aspects of vegetarianism. Nominated by fellow VSI volunteer Grace Hillis, Colm has been involved with the Vegetarian Society of Ireland (VSI) committee for over six years and has served as both chair and webmaster. During this time, Colm has helped develop the website, www.vegetarian.ie.  The aim of the organisation is to advance education and to promote positive aspects of vegetarianism in relation to health, animal welfare and environmental issues.Colm created the e-newsletter, edited the magazine, liaised with stockists and manned the phone line. …

HUNDREDS of parents, teachers, trade union officials and public representatives met in Galway on Monday to discuss the cuts affecting education and those expected in next week’s Budget. The conference, titled Give Kids a Chance, was organised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation as part of the series of Schools Week events that are currently being held across the country. The conference was addressed by Joe Killeen, local Central Executive Committee representative and principal of Lough Cutra National School, who warned of the perils of increasing pupil numbers (an additional 25,900 by 2014) while there is a lack of teachers. Mr Killeen emphasised the European average class size is 20 pupils per teacher, while Irish pupils are in classes averaging 24.2 pupils or 20% higher than their European counterparts. He outlined the cuts that have been implemented to date including cuts in resource teaching hours, reduction in English as additional language teachers, the end of the rural co-ordinators’ scheme, the …

KINVARA-based soprano, Maeve Cairney, will perform a series of concerts in Galway over the next five months. In conjunction with renowned pianist, Morgan Cooke, the concerts will take place in different venues in the city at 8pm on one Sunday in every month from December through to April. Each concert will have a theme and special guest performer.“I did a concert back in March called A Voice in Bloom, that was my first solo professional concert and lots of people came up to me afterwards to ask me when I was doing something similar again. I sing throughout the summer in Dunguaire so every winter, I like to have a project. I had a brainwave one night at about three in the morning, to do a concert series for one night each month. I decided to run the series to increase my own repertoire and to have the opportunity to perform and also I suppose to give audiences the opportunity …

Corofin Dramatic Society will take to the stage in Ennis at the weekend in the hope of bringing home the title of MACE All-Ireland One Act winners. Corofin is the only group from Clare to make it through to the prestigious finals with their production of What’s for Pudding, written by David Tristram. “We picked this play because it because it is a good English comedy and I thought if I get the five people from our group that I have in mind for the role, if I get those they will do a fair job on it. I did get the actors and actresses I wanted and they did a great job. They did all the work and I did nothing,” said director Eileen Lahiffe modestly.Corofin Dramatic Society was founded in 1950 and has competed regularly on the three-act and one-act festival circuits since. The society was the winner of the one-act finals in 1993 with a play written …

MARY Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna held its FETAC awards presentation recently. While it has offered adult education awards for over a decade, this year the school’s first FETAC Level 6 graduates were conferred with their awards in business and in supervision in childcare.In response to what it says is “a huge demand in the greater North Clare area” the school has been offering adult education courses for the past 14 years. Beginning with FETAC Level 5 awards in tourism and business, the range of courses has been extended and now includes business studies, childcare, community and health services and art, craft and design. In the interim, hundreds of adult learners have received FETAC Level 5 awards and many have progressed to third-level education and employment.Following their success at Level 5, many students expressed an interest in being able to undertake a Level 6 course locally. With this in mind, the school added on the two Level 6 courses. A further …