Regional

FIFTY-eight years after it was first discovered, the Great Stalactite of Doolin is now open to the public and accessible via a visitor centre.Doolin Cave houses a 24-foot long free-hanging stalactite, the largest in the Northern Hemisphere, in one of Ireland’s largest natural caverns.While the cave has been open to visitors for some time, Thursday marked the official opening of the Doolin Cave Visitor Centre, something the family behind the venture hope will help grow visitor numbers from 10,000 to 55,000 annually within three years.It was an emotional day for John and Helen Browne and their daughters Jenny and Karen as the tape was cut across the centre’s entrance.“We are very proud and happy for this day. It has been 20 years coming. It has been a long struggle and there have been many days when there was a very dark shadow over it all but these times are gone and we are looking forward to the future,” John began.The …

VANDALS have damaged the hands of a sculpture in the Remembrance Garden in Cloughleigh. Last Thursday, Anne McCullagh, who was one of the parents instrumental in establishing the garden 10 years ago, discovered the damage to the statue on a visit to the garden.The hands of the statue, which are joined in a prayer-like pose, were broken apart and knocked off. “This is so upsetting. Why would anyone do this? It’s not the first time vandals have damaged the statue, or got at other parts of the garden, including the plants. I’m sick to the teeth of this now. People have no respect,” she said. She said that people who work in stone-masonry have told her that it would have taken anybody a long time to cause this kind of damage to the statue. “Part of the hands have literally been hacked off. Surely somebody must have seen someone or a group up to no good in the garden,” she …

FUNDING totalling €66,000 for an approved playground in Cratloe Woods will be lost if residents lodge a planning appeal, a local committee has warned.Clare County Council recently granted planning permission for a new playground at the entrance to Cratloe Woods on Gallows Hill.The planning authority gave the playground the green light despite a strong objection signed by 86 residents, who claimed this site is totally unsuitable, as it attracts a large amount of destruction to cars and ongoing theft of property.“Many people don’t feel safe in the forest park not to mind the concern for the safety of children of the parish and beyond. The site is proposed to be alongside a busy secondary road with a large volume of fast moving traffic.“We feel that the wood will provide the perfect refuge for perverts with the worst of intentions for young children, as it is a poorly supervised area,” the residents claimed.A residents’ spokesman confirmed an appeal may be lodged …

ENNIS will host its own mini-World Cup this Sunday, with 12 multicultural teams from all over Clare vying for a place in the semi-final, which will be part of the county’s Intercultural Festival the following weekend.Alphonse Basogomba of the Clare Intercultural Festival explained that there has been a soccer tournament as part of the festival each year since the festival began six years ago. “It’s always a very popular part of the festival, but this year to capture some of the World Cup fever, we decided to make it into Clare’s own mini World Cup. So 12 teams will be narrowed down to four this Sunday, coinciding with the real World Cup Final,” he said.The mini-World Cup will be played this Sunday afternoon in the Ennis Leisure World on the Showgrounds Road. “Many different countries will be represented on teams including Nigeria, South Africa, France, Poland and Ireland as well as Travellers. Some teams will be of mixed nationalities, while …

A NORTH Clare hotelier will take part in his 30th marathon at the end of the summer after just over five years running.Lahinch businessman Alan Logue has gone from running in disguise to raising thousands of euro for charities since taking up the sport at the age of 27.“I started running about five years ago. I was influenced to run by the late Howard Flannery. He got me into it through the Clare Crusaders. I started to run at night so no one would see me. I used to wear a cap so I wouldn’t be recognised. Then I just got obsessed with running and started to do marathons,” the Ennis man recalls.“When I was younger I would have been slightly overweight and because of the fact I wasn’t involved in any other sport, I wanted to do something to get fit and that was the drive,” he adds.Alan began with the Dublin marathon.“I found it very tough the first …

A SIX-month Saturday pedestrianisation plan for Ennis town centre has been abandoned after six weeks.At a meeting of the town council on Monday evening, which was attended by a large group of Ennis traders, councillors voted six to three against the continuation of the trial after the business community cited a reduction in business on Saturdays when the streets were closed for six hours to vehicles. Ennis town manager Ger Dollard said that it was “disappointing” that the council could not complete the trial, which would have “provided a solid base for delivering on one of the core objectives of the Ennis Town Development Plan 2008-2014, namely the pedestrianisation of O’Connell Street and Abbey Street”. He continued, “Review mechanisms had been put in place to assess the effects of the trial on trading and consumer attitudes. However, this review will now not be possible due to the discontinuation of the trial.”The town manager added that the council was not abandoning …

CALLS for a community garda sub-office in the Westbury area were supported by a high-ranking garda this week.Speaking at a joint policing committee meeting in Clonlara Community Centre on Monday night, Superintendent Frank O’Brien said he would not be against locating a garda in a community centre or in an office room for a specific period of time, similar to an initiative on the south side of Limerick City.Stationed in Henry Street, Superintendent O’Brien, who has jurisdiction for policy matters in South-East Clare, noted that as Ardnacrusha Garda Station is a rural station, it has limited opening hours.During any eight-hour shift, he explained gardaí had only one quarter of its overall complement on duty and this included coping with deploying resources for court work, where gardaí could be tied up for a number of days.“We have to prioritise our resources. If a garda patrol car does not come to an area in an hour or two, very often gardaí can …

IT took about a year and a half, but Shannon Leisure Centre has finally reopened, with thousands of people turning out for the official opening last Saturday.Sixteen full-time and six to eight part-time positions have been created following the €1.4 million redevelopment and the centre now includes a 25m swimming pool, gymnasium, skate park, climbing wall, two sports halls, dance studio, floodlit outdoor tennis courts, a café/relaxation area, steam and sauna rooms and wet and dry changing rooms.Reverend Bob Hanna and Shannon parish priest Tom Ryan blessed the centre, before it was officially opened by Defence Minister Tony Killeen. The opening ceremony was followed by a free fun day.Initially, the redevelopment was to be completed within 20 weeks, but there was a lengthy delay due to a dispute between the contractor and the board of the leisure centre. The delay in the reopening led to a Facebook campaign and a public protest outside a meeting of Shannon Town Council earlier …