Regional

COMMUNITY gardaí in Ennis were extra busy this week helping school children and their parents cross the road safely and properly.The team of community guards visited primary and secondary schools throughout Ennis driving home the message of road safety as part of Garda Community Safety Week.“We go through all elements of road safety with the children in a classroom environment and also outside the school at opening and finishing times. In the schools that I have visited, the children were very good on the rules of the road and they all knew the Safe Cross Code off by heart. “What I focussed on with them was the importance of crossing the road at the right place and at the right time,” Garda Deirdre O’Doherty, Ennis town centre community garda said.She added that often children are better than their parents in terms of road safety, so she also spoke to parents about road safety issues. “Parents must stop walking where cars …

A NEW structure and team have been put in place for the Fianna Fáil party in the Ennis area.At a meeting of the grass roots of the party in Ennis on Monday night, a new unifying structure, bringing together all six Ennis area Fianna Fail cumainn, was adopted. New officers were elected to lead this new Ennis Branch, which is being called Comhairle Baile na h-Inse Fianna Fáil.The branches that have amalgamated are Ennis Number 1 Cumann (All Ennis Urban-East), Sean McEntee Cumann (Lifford Area), Margaret Pearse Cumann, Eamon de Valera Cumann (Turnpike/Kilrush Road Area), The Dr Hillery Cumann (All Ennis Urban-West) and the Loughville Cumann (Lahinch Road/Shanaway area).Garrett Greene is the chairman of the new branch, with Joe Reidy his second-in-command as secretary of the cumann. Garrett polled well in the hotly contested Ennis West constituency last year without taking a seat. Son of former mayor, Raymond Greene, Garrett works for Ennis medical staffing company, TTM Healthcare. His previous …

OVER 300 members of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland will congregate in the Glór Theatre, Ennis, for the organisation’s 37th AGM that will take place on May 11.In a boost for local trade the delegates will stay in the Temple Gate Hotel and in the Old Ground Hotel but will also enjoy rounds of golf in Ennis Golf Club and Dromoland Golf Club. The AGM itself will take place in the Glór theatre. The AGM will confirm Carlow based Gerry Mellett as the new VFI president, taking over from Galway’s Val Hanley. The keynote speaker at this year’s event will be the well-known bookmaker, broadcaster and journalist Ivan Yates. Speaking in advance of the AGM, VFI president Val Hanley said, “We are delighted to be going to Clare for the 37th VFI annual general meeting. Glór is a wonderful venue and Ennis is a wonderful town and we are eagerly anticipating a great event. No one can doubt that the …

More work may need to be undertaken to alleviate the risk of further flood damage in South Galway, according to the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works.Junior Minister Martin Mansergh was in South Galway on Monday to meet with local public representatives and those in the areas worst affected by flooding. Minister Mansergh was accompanied on his tour of the area by Fianna Fáil deputies Noel Treacy and Michéal Kitt, as well as Councillor Gerry Finnerty. According to Minister Mansergh, the purpose of his visit to East and South Galway was to discuss with local representatives and those badly affected by last November’s unprecedented flooding in the area “the plans and proposed works needed to prevent or minimise the risks of a recurrence”.“People are very frustrated by the pace things are moving at generally in relation to flood relief. People want to see machinery in operation and see work being done. What they are asking …

THE children of Corofin National School this week got an insight into 175 years of education in the North Clare village.Celebrating the 50th anniversary celebrations of Scoil Mhuire Náisiúnta, the pupils travelled to its parent and grandparent schools tracking education in the area since 1835.On Tuesday, the pupils visited Richmond National School, the site of education in the village for five decades.“That school was established in 1835 and was called Richmond School. It was on the grounds of Richmond House. The house was set up as a Yeomanry barracks for soldiers in the 17th century. By the 1830s, it was the parish priest of Corofin that was living there and the priest who had Richmond School recognised was a man called Fr Donovan. Nine years later, the girls’ school in Corofin was recognised,” Scoil Mhuire principal Declan Kelleher explained.Among the most notable things the children discovered during their research was that teachers in Richmond School included Irish bard Hugh Mac …

Thousands of additional visitors are expected to descend on the Burren over the coming month as a landscape-led festival takes place.Burren in Bloom, a festival providing information on the area’s unique landscape, will be launched this Tuesday. This year’s programme includes more than 25 separate events aimed at locals and tourists alike.“This is the sixth year of the festival and we have now built a whole series of events around it so there is something new each week. The Burren Law School takes place over the first weekend. The second weekend has the Gregan’s Gourmet Garden Gathering, the third weekend is the Burren Marathon and last year we had nearly 1,000 people at that alone. Then, on the final weekend, we have a whole new festival this year called the Festival of the Valleys, which is a weekend of music, song, food and sporting events to celebrate Celtic and Mediterranean cultural fusion,” explained Mary Hawkes Green, one of the Burren …

A fourth-class pupil from North Clare this week won a prestigious national award recognising independent thinking.Ronan O’Connell, a pupil in Scoil Mhainchin, Ennistymon, was adjudicated the winner of the fourth to sixth class category of the National Junior Inventor competition run by the Patents Office.The winners of the annual competition were announced on Monday, World Intellectual Property Day. It attracted more than 2,000 entries but Ronan’s idea for a safety sensor for electric cookers was cited as the top in his age group.The sensor would be built into electric cooker rings and would automatically turn itself off if there was no saucepan on it for more than 50 seconds.Ronan’s teacher, Veronica Clancy, first spoke to the school’s third and fourth-class pupils about the competition in September.“The idea of the competition was thrown out in September. Ronan maintained his interest from then on and developed his idea before eventually entering before the Easter deadline. It was quite an achievement for Ronan. …

Kilkee Chamber president Johnny Redmond is hopeful that a meeting of business and community groups held in the town last Friday, might kick-start a number of West Clare-based tourism and businesses initiatives.Amongst the groups present were Kilrush Chamber, represented by their president Mark Reidy; Doonbeg Development; individual business people including Patrick Bourke, Rebecca Brew and Luke Aston, various community groups and local county councillors Patrick Keane, Gabriel Keating and Christy Curtin. Mr Redmond believes exploiting West Clare’s tourism potential could save the region’s economy, which has been badly hit by the recession. “If we can direct the tourists back to Loop Head, it will be good for everybody. We have nothing else back here at the moment and as far as I’m concerned, West Clare is dying on its feet. With the downturn in the economy, there’s no jobs back here,” he stated. “I’m a publican in Kilkee and I can see that there’s no people around and that business …