Regional

Kinvara is gearing up for The Spirit of Voice Festival, which returns to the seaside village from November 12 to 14 with concerts and events celebrating song, words, and the human voice.The festival launch was held at Johnston’s Hall  last weekend and featured performances by Aindrias De Staic and Tom Portman.Aindrias is an accomplished musician and actor, having won the best actor award at the Geelong Film Festival 2006 and The Galway Music Award 2007. He will be joined on stage by the musicians José and Estaban Moreno.Tom Portman is a gifted guitarist who specialises in playing the Dobro and lap steel guitar. His music ranges from blues to Indian ragas.The festival begins on Friday, November 12 at 8pm in Kelly’s with London hip-hop poet Kate Tempest and The Sound of Rum. Support on the night comes from the funky spoken word group Atlantis Collective and Galway’s The Lucky Crew.The following day, also in Kelly’s, Cork soul and funk group …

TEENAGERS in Killaloe and Ballina are keeping their fingers crossed that plans for a multi-purpose €100,000 youth centre will not fall victim to Government cutbacks in the forthcoming Budget.An application for funding has been made to the Minister for Community and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamonn Ó Cuív and hopes are high that the needs of young people in the area will be addressed.It is expected that a final decision on the provision of the long-awaited youth café in Luas Villas, Killaloe, opposite Bond Auto, will be made by the Government in late November or December. Clare County Council and local Foroige clubs are supporting the ambitious bid at a time of swinging cutbacks.Facilities in the new building would include space to facilitate youth training and development, community development, counseling, a social area, band practice, recording area and workshops.The need for a proper building for young people who don’t participate in sport or water-based activities has been identified in a number of …

MOTORISTS travelling either direction of the Barefield area of the N18 can expect considerable delays next week when the schools reopen after the mid-term break.Ahead of the planned opening of the Gort/Crusheen bypass on November 12, all N18 traffic is being diverted through the village of Barefield.Tom Tiernan, senior executive engineer with Clare County Council, said there is a necessity to divert all N18 traffic through the village of Barefield since last Tuesday to Friday, November 11, to facilitate the works involved in tying in the southern end of the project with the northern end of the Ennis bypass.“For this period, therefore, traffic levels through Barefield will be approximately similar to what they were prior to the opening of the Ennis bypass in 2007. The main disruption will be at school start and finish times due to the location of the school and the fact that it accommodates over 300 children.“Before the diversion was approved, an extensive public consultation process …

Last May, 88-year-old Robert Cresswell, a retired professor from the Sorbonne in Paris, donated his archive of photographs, slides and film footage of Kinvara to Ireland. A slide show of a selection of these images from the town from 1956-57 will be held in Johnston’s Hall, Kinvara this Friday night at 8.30pm. This will include the colour slides and film footage not yet shown in Kinvara.A comprehensive selection of the images is now also available on the Kinvara website (kinvara.com). The archive, which featured recently on RTÉ Nationwide, has also been taken on as a project by transition-year students from Gort Community School, whose task will include helping in identifying people in the photographs. Robert Cresswell lived for 15 months in Kinvara while conducting his anthropological studies during the mid-1950s. In 1969, based on his research, the Institut d’Ethnologie (Paris) published his book, Une communauté rurale de l’Irlande (A rural community in Ireland). His work is the only major anthropological …

ENNIS-based businessman and president of Ennis Chamber, Guy Flouch, is offering potential third level students free advice and support about studying abroad.With the increasing pressure on Ireland’s third level system and the growing numbers of CAO applicants projected over the next few years, parents of the current generation of Leaving Certificate students are asking where their children are going to get a third-level education.“The traditional safety valve has always been universities in the UK – over 8,000 Irish students applied to UK universities this year, a growth on last year of 28.9%. However, 188,000 applicants through UCAS, the UK Central Applications system, were not offered a place this year. “This, together with the increase in fees in UK universities to £7000, is leading to high levels of concern amongst imminent school-leavers, their advisors and their families. Increasingly popular, as a destination, are a growing number of universities in the EU, and further afield, which are seeking to recruit Irish and …

A CLONLARA drama group literally swept the boards at two drama festivals last weekend picking up an impressive eight awards.Shannonside Drama Group scooped four awards each on the One-Act circuit in Kilmallock and Birr, which has practically assured them of a place in the All-Ireland final before they participate in three other events.In addition to winning the award for best play in the confined section, Eddie Dillon and Eilish Casey won top honours for their performances in Landscape by Arnold Porter at Friars Gate, Kilmallock. Pauline Moloney also brought home the trophy for best director.The following night in Birr, Eddie and Pauline were again judged as the best actor and director while the adjudicators decided to give a special award to Eilish Dillon, as there was no category for best actress. Their production also won an award for best play on the night.Eddie Dillon said the group is delighted with their success over the weekend. “We have won a number …

For Kilkee businessman John Redmond, it was a challenge to beat the mother of all challenges – to start and complete the gruelling Barcelona Maresme Iron Man Triathlon 2010.Even though John had been training for the past year with colleagues Cillian Murphy and Martin Busher in the Limerick Triathlon Club for the event that comprised a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike ride and a 42.2km run, he really didn’t know if his body could be pushed to the point of exhaustion and still respond. Despite all the preparation, only time would tell. But it was mission accomplished when John crossed the finishing line 12 hours 15 minutes and 46 seconds after having set off. He finished 27 minutes behind Cillian and 27 minutes in front of Martin. “As you can imagine, we have been training throughout the last year for this epic event. We have been taking part in triathlons for almost five years now and it has always been …

TWO Shannon companies, Zimmer and Bolgers, are using Lean processes to try and ensure business success. To encourage other companies to do likewise, Shannon Chamber has teamed up with Enterprise Ireland to deliver a half-day workshop on ‘Lean in Business’.It will take place at Zimmer’s premises at Shannon Free Zone East. Launching the event, Chamber president Damian Gleeson said, “This is the first Chamber event, focused on a distinct business area, that has been held in a company’s premises. Zimmer’s willingness to open its doors and share its experiences with other like-minded businesses, demonstrates a keen interest in increasing the robustness of Shannon Region-based companies.”“Zimmer’s adoption of Lean has been driven from within. This required a concerted effort across the entire organisation. Bolger’s achievements show that the principles are as applicable to the indigenous sector as they are to multinational organisations. That’s why Enterprise Ireland is encouraging its clients to develop and embed Lean business principles in their organisations. Typical …