Regional

A Ballyvaughan café scooped a top industry award when it received the prestigious Hotel and Catering Review Gold Medal Award for Cafés and Coffee Shops. An Fear Gorta Tea and Garden Rooms beat off stiff competition from peers in Ireland’s busy café sector to win the coveted award at the 23rd Annual Hotel and Catering Review Gold Medal Awards last week.An Fear Gorta shot to national fame earlier this year when Hollywood director Stephen Spielberg flew to Ireland especially for a slice of The Tea and Garden Rooms’ cheesecake. An Fear Gorta has been described as a ‘must-visit’ by members of the Hotel and Catering Review Gold Medal Awards jury, who together travelled close to 20,000 kilometres across the island this summer to search for Ireland’s greatest cafés, hotels, restaurants and catering operations.“It’s not hard to see why Stephen Spielberg jetted into Ireland just for the cheesecake in The Tea and Garden Rooms in Ballyvaughan,” commented Sarah Grennan, editor of …

SLIABH Aughty Drama Group will be staging two one-act comedies in Mountshannon later this month as part of their annual Pub Theatre sessions.The plays will run at the Mountshannoon Hotel beginning on Friday, November 18 running through to Sunday, November 20. This year’s productions include The Case of the Tale Told by an Idiot: A Justin Thyme Mystery, written by Bruce Kane, and Letters of a Matchmaker by John B Keane.In the first play, Justin Thyme, a fictional detective is called up to find out who killed the King of Scotland, in a send up of Shakespeare’s MacBeth. The production provides for plenty of tongue-in-cheek moments and laughs with modern reflections. This play has a cast of 11 Sliabh Aughty Drama Group members and will be directed by John Allen. John explains he came across Bruce Kane having seen a production of his other one-act play Ruby of Elsinor by Ennis Players and from there, began reading some of Kane’s …

This time last year, Michael O’Halloran and Mark Sillman were two of the boxers training for the first Clare Conquest fight night.  Both men had previously boxed and found the return to the sport motivating, energising and familiar. They enjoyed the training, the camaraderie and the welcome return to a fitness they had let slide in recent times.   In fact, they had never met and had no idea that in their efforts to support local causes, they would form a friendship that would become a business partnership within months.  As they trained, they recognised that many of their fellow boxers were interested in continuing the training after the charity event, that it was a lifestyle choice that all ages could enjoy and that boxing for fitness was here to stay.  The seed of a business proposition was sown between punches and after an exciting fight night last November Fitness Boxing Ireland (FBI) came into existence. Mark and Michael undertook a …

The developers of a proposed six-turbine windfarm near Kilmaley have confirmed that 26,704m3 of soil will be extracted to facilitate the development.Clare County Council requested Seahound Wind Energy Developments Limited to address a number of concerns and issues concerning the construction of six wind turbines with a maximum hub height of 90m, maximum blade diameter of 93m, one permanent meteorological mast, access road and internal side tracks, electricity sub-station, underground cabling and all associated site works.In its further information request the council expressed concern about conflicting statements concerning the total volume of excavated material and noted this is as high as 46,350m3 in Section 10.311 of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and 26,704m3 in another section.The planning authority noted some slight discrepancies between the stated peat depths and slopes having regard to the peat probe tests, gouge core tests and trial pits.It expressed concerns about the potential of land slippage around the location of turbine six and in ­particular the …

THE provision of new information technology at one of Galway’s main public hospitals will dramatically improve efficiency and patient outcomes, according to Health Minister Dr James Reilly.University College Hospital, Galway has been the subject of severe criticism from public representatives at HSE Forum West meetings in recent months due to chronic overcrowding and high numbers of patients waiting on trolleys.If Minister Reilly’s plans come to fruition, it seems public patients will spend less time waiting to be admitted to the emergency department and should also get quicker access to a host of surgical and medical treatments.In addition to the introduction of a new Special Delivery Unit (SDU), Minister Reilly has unveiled plans for a new information technology system, which will enable managers to track the exact journey and length of time a patient spends going through different departments in UCHG.The minister hopes to rollout this new system, where managers will be able to track every consultant’s waiting list in every …

THE community of Ballyea have come together in a bid to raise funds to help a local six-year-old with a rare genetic disorder. Little Eimear Power, who attends Ballyea National School, was diagnosed with a chromosomal abnormality when she was two-and-a-half. It is hoped that money raised from a greyhound night at Limerick Greyhound Stadium this Friday will allow Eimear access therapies that would lead to a better quality of life for her.Eimear’s mother Teresa, the family, husband, Gerry, and their two other daughters, have been “overwhelmed” with the support Eimear has received from the local community.She explained her daughter’s condition is very rare, with the initial signs there when she was just a few hours old. Teresa recalled, “When she was born, within 24 hours there were things wrong but nobody could tell us the cause until she was two-and-a-half and the geneticist in Crumlin gave us a diagnosis. Her condition is very rare. There were children out there …

THE Ennis Trad Festival is set to bring a welcome €1 million boost to the region when it kicks off this November. Tens of thousands of music lovers are set to descend on Ennis next month for the festival.According to John Rynne, Ennis Trad Festival director, “I’ve been talking to publicans and hoteliers here about figures and the festival is definitely worth a million plus to the region every year. This would be between accommodation, drink sales, food, taxis, everything factored in. We have an enormous number of people flying in from abroad and a lot of these people would be coming for a week to the region. And what they might spend at the festival isn’t the entirety of what they would spend in the region as a result of the festival.”He added, “From a commercial point of view, the pub trade and hotels have all been hit with the recession and with winter coming in and November, with …

THERE will be plenty of model behaviour in Ennis this Saturday with shoppers having the chance to go window shopping with a difference as part of an innovative plan to showcase some of the town’s fashionable flair.A number of local boutiques have come together to display their styles in a very different way. A shop window on O’Connell Street will be transformed this Saturday with live mannequins modelling outfits from boutiques throughout the town.The event has been organised by Nicola Danagher along with Fiona Allen. Nicola explained, “We were just trying to come up with something a bit different that would attract people to come into Ennis and see just what this town has to offer, to get people to come back onto the streets and shop here. We have a wide range of styles and ages and something to suit all. We think this is a unique event and a change from the norm. This is a non-profit event, …