Regional

Aside from the four General Election candidates who were elected to ­represent Clare in the 31st Dáil, first-time Independent candidate Brian Markham gleaned most from last Friday’s vote.

KILRUSH Town Councillor Ian Lynch has accused the Department of Health and the HSE of discrimination against the residents of the west coast of Ireland.

Michael Kitt may have received the most votes in the Galway East constituency but Nicola Corless looks at who topped the poll in South Galway.

SOUTH Galway woman Emer O’Donnell attracted 601 first-preference votes in Friday’s General Election before being eliminated. The Kinvara archaeologist only announced her intention to run three weeks before polling day and with a campaign team of just three people, including herself, and three posters, she convinced 1% of the East Galway electorate to give her their number one.Prompted to run by what she saw as the mismanagement of the economy and waste of resources, the Kinvara woman said she will run again, next time with a better-organised campaign, if the new Government are not up to her standards.“I was seeing wasted resources on one hand and faulty decision making on the other and there seemed to be an inherent fear of the unknown. Leaders are meant to lead and in Ireland they did not. They passed the buck onto every citizen in Ireland without trying to defend us,” she told The Clare Champion.Ms O’Donnell secured 360 first preferences from people …

The members of the 31st Dáil will take up their seats in Dáil Éireann on March 9 and among them are two East Clare deputies.

East Clare Tourism held its annual general meeting last week, where it was acknowledged that tourism operators are experiencing difficult times, as officers were elected to their positions.

The operators of a new East Clare-based seaplane business will be holding an open meeting next week in Feakle, where they aim to tease out ways the seaplane can generate tourism business for the locality.

A FORMER heroin addict, DJ Gareth O’Callaghan, journalist John Waters and former governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan are amongst the high profile speakers set to preach at weekend masses in Ennis during Lent.