Regional

Bobby Reynolds could be forgiven for looking back in anger. Eighteen months ago, he lost his wife, Michelle after an eight-year battle with breast cancer, leaving him with two young daughters, Katie (8) and Edie (6). There are times when he yearns for a return to his old life but he tries to look forward with optimism and is extremely grateful for being able to enjoy his two daughters.The courage he has shown in picking up the pieces as a widowed father has inspired a committee of women in Killaloe and Ballina to leave no stone unturned for the organisation of the second annual Killaloe Pink Ribbon Walk in aid of Action Breast Cancer this Saturday.When Bobby lines up with up to 1,000 women and men to complete the 10km trek on the shores of Lough Derg, his thoughts will invariably turn to Michelle.He knows that if his wife was still alive, she would have continued fundraising for Action Breast …

IT was a day of mixed emotions for students of St Joseph’s Education Centre in Ennis as they celebrated the year’s achievements, aware that this would be the last major awards event to be held by the centre, which is facing closure.The presentation of awards took place in the Auburn Lodge Hotel, Ennis, during the annual celebration of academic year achievements by St Joseph’s learners. The centre is to be phased out in 2012 as a result of cutbacks being implemented by the Department of Education and Skills.The programme for the award’s day displayed the affection in which the centre is held. Kathleen Marie Keenan wrote, “I have the opportunity to learn to read and write. I will miss it when they close us down. The teachers are nice. We will never get to meet anyone like them again.”Michael P Mongans commented, “It means a lot to me to be here in the centre; I love coming here. I never …

The participants of Living Scenes at St Joseph’s Secondary School Tulla will stage their production of Bring Me Roses While I Can Smell Them, a play written and directed by the late Sarah Lennon from Quin. Sarah passed away recently aged 43 after losing her battle with cancer and following her death the Living Scenes group decided to run their production over two nights, with all proceeds going to Milford Hospice.  Sarah’s association with drama goes back to the mid-1980s, when she was a member of Icarus Drama Group in Shannon. She was responsible for re-establishing the Quin Players 10 years ago, who every year have put on a production, among them Jane Eyre and An Inspector Calls.Over the last five years Sarah attended annual Drama League of Ireland courses ranging from script writing, direction, stage management and lighting and wrote Bring Me Roses for the Living Scenes Drama module at St Joseph’s Secondary School.Sarah initially joined the NUIG-run project …

FIVE budding whizz kids are celebrating their innovative flair this week after scooping first prize in a major national computer programming competition.Jake Farrell, Leon Holmes, Nathan Crawford, Brendan Winters and Jack Faherty, who are all aged between 10 and 12, developed a new computer game that won first prize worth €500 in the national Scratch competition in Tallaght Institute of Technology last Saturday.Scratch teaches computer programming concepts to young people and is administered by LERO, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.Gort Family and Community Resource Centre recently ran a computer programming course for young people, which was facilitated by volunteer Steve Holmes. The five boys, who are all from the Gort area, were never involved in computer programming before and designed and developed an award-winning game. Steve, who works as a computer programmer in Avaya, a Galway-based global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, got the idea for the project while watching his son, Leon, completing his homework …

More than 500 school children, many bearing fiddles, harps, flutes and drums representing eight schools in Ennis, converged on Ennis Cathedral recently to participate in a thanksgiving service in honour of retired Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh.The event was an initiative of Ennis Parish Education Forum, which was set up in 2005 by Bishop Walsh. The children were welcomed by Isobel O’Dea, chairman of the forum, who commented, “It is a great credit to the teachers to have so many children here to acknowledge the contribution of the bishop to Education in Ennis.” Musicians from Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Cíosóg opened the proceedings with their rendition of Slán le Máigh. Choir directors and accompanists in turn led the groups from Holy Family Senior School, Ennis National School, CBS Primary School, Scoil Chríost Rí and St Anne’s School in a selection of hymns reflecting the themes of praise and thanksgiving. A group of dancers from St Clare’s School delighted the congregation and Bishop …

SPORTING, semi-state and local authorities expect to make a €2 million splash for the local economy during a two-day open swim event in Lough Derg in September.The promoters of Immersed in Ireland (i3) are hoping to attract up to 2,000 swimmers to the region over the weekend of September 16-18.The mass participation open water event, the first of its kind in Ireland ,is being organised by Shannon Development and the University of Limerick Activity Centre, with the support of the Shannon Region Conference and Sports Bureau, North Tipperary County Council and Clare County Council.This event takes place in the University of Limerick Activity Centre near Killaloe.Speaking about the significance of the event, Pat Daly, tourism division manager at Shannon Development, explained the authority has been targeting new sports events that have the potential to attract additional visitors to the Shannon Region.“The new i3 Swim event is the latest of five world and international events secured by Shannon Development, in partnership …

DOZENS of graduates returned to Shannon College of Hotel Management last Friday as it celebrated its 60th anniversary.Retired North Clare hotelier Eamon Vaughan was in the second class that enrolled at the college. “It was good, it gave us the basics. We used to work for the summer in the kitchens and other parts of the airport, although I used to go home and work in Vaughan’s Hotel. Then I went on to Germany and on to London. In the original days, it was so different, we didn’t learn anything about food costings or anything like that. You thought all you had to do to be a hotel manager was to walk around,” he said of his days at the college.There were 21 in his class and he was the only one from Clare and he said the students met many celebrities of the day there. “I remember I spent half an hour talking to Nat King Cole one night, …

A young North Clare musician had the gig of her life last week when she performed for Queen Elizabeth II. Tara Breen from Ruan played the fiddle at the State dinner hosted by President Mary McAleese and her husband Dr Martin McAleese in Dublin Castle last Wednesday evening.