Regional

EX-TD George Lee, who dramatically resigned from Fine Gael and Dáil Éireann on Monday, gave his last public appearance as a party member at the Kilrush Chamber dinner dance last Friday.Lee, who gave no clue of his impending decision, did, however, signal his unease at his dual role of being a politician and economist. In pointing to the need for solutions to the current recession, he said that people were always “giving out” in the Dáil.“I think, fair enough, that is Irish politics. But we really need to change. We need to work on solutions. These are going to be very difficult solutions. Finding the solutions to where we are now is new. It is difficult because we have never been in this situation before,” he stated.   The economist and former RTÉ correspondent, who had been asked to be guest speaker at the function by Clare TD Pat Breen, remarked on how happy and relaxed everybody, seemed before speaking for …

THE region served by Shannon Airport does not have a hope of surviving without a viable airport, the Kilrush-based director of a foreign-direct-investment company told last Friday’s Kilrush Chamber dinner dance.Saint-Gobain operations director John Costelloe said he and some of his management are driving to Dublin every second week to get flights, which is an unsustainable way to do business when there is a viable international airport in the region.Addressing the local business people and two then Fine Gael TDs, Clare’s Pat Breen and guest speaker and former RTÉ correspondent George Lee, Costelloe stressed that “an M50-centric economy would not work for Ireland’s future”. However, he said, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is operating well in Kilrush and has secured €600,000 investment for 2010, securing the plant’s future. Sales are down by 25% to €15 million but the plant is profitable, he said, unlike other plants around the world. Irish workers are not able to compete on a dollar-for-dollar basis with low-wage …

THE inaugural memorial award in honour of a Ballyvaughan nurse was presented this week to a Clare woman nursing in University College Hospital in Galway.On Tuesday, Sharon Cassidy from Belkelly, Tuamgraney became the first recipient of Anna-May Driscoll Foundation Learning Bursary. The Anna May Driscoll Foundation was set up to commemorate the work that Anna May Driscoll from Murrough in Ballyvaughan pioneered in leadership in the corporate and voluntary sectors before her death from cancer two years ago.Having originally qualified as a children’s nurse, Anna May became a leading management consultant in the area of behaviour and organisation change. She worked with clients in Europe, Asia, and North America. Anna May left Clare at 16 years of age and qualified as a paediatric nurse at St Mary’s in Paddington. She worked in the Princess Louise Hospital Kensington and her work in ante-natal and post-natal clinics led her to working in family planning and from this into psycho-sexual counselling. Anna May …

GUAIRE Magazine, the magazine that has celebrated the town of Gort and its environs for over 30 years since it was launched in 1978, is now available online.“This is a hugely exciting development for all who grew up in Gort and particularly for those who no longer live there and can now freely access all the issues since 1978 and enjoy the memories that the magazine evokes,” claims Guaire editor, Mary O’Shaughnessy.Last year, the committee decided to create the website and last week its work came to fruition with the launch of www.guaire.ie at a function in the Lady Gregory Hotel.Putting 30 year’s worth of history and anecdotes online is not a small task and has been Mary’s main focus since she took over as editor last year. However, luckily, she did have some help.“It took months to get it done as it was done on a voluntary basis and the most time-consuming element was scanning each page of each …

Over the coming weeks Gort Community School will become one of the most technologically advanced second-level schools in the country.The school was selected as one of 78 schools nationwide to take part in a pilot project run by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in June and while the school has received some of the equipment due to it under the programme, in the coming weeks it will be further upgraded. Under the project, 100 Mbps of broadband will be delivered to the school and a wireless Local Area Network installed, meaning there will be access to the Internet in any location in the school and pupils can learn and collaborate online simultaneously.Under the scheme, the school was allocated funding for 31 laptops and 25 digital projectors, an investment of approximately €50,000. The investment means that soon almost every classroom in Gort Community School will be equipped with a fixed digital projector and the school will also have …

IT’S not easy to rattle Timmy Ryan. Last Friday, the day after his 100th birthday, Timmy’s great grandchildren did their best. Quiet as a mini horde of mice initially, it emerged that the trio were conspiring to blow a few party poppers, which made a fair din but they didn’t shake the man of the house. One of the Knockalough man’s favourite pastimes, along with cross-country running, was shooting wild game. So he’s not unused to the odd outbreak of noise.His actual birthday, last Thursday, brought a fair bit of excitement with it. The first thing Timmy had to do was collect 110 birthday cards from Seán Killeen when the postman called. Then his phone started to ring. President McAleese was at the other end of the line giving a buzz to congratulate Timmy. He also heard from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. “He’s sending me a bottle of whiskey he said,” Timmy laughed, sitting in front of the fire …

CLARE County Council are set to spend more than €7 million (before VAT) on building affordable housing in Cluain Airne and, despite the ongoing correction in the property market, they expect the scheme to sell out.At this week’s meeting of Shannon Town Council, Councillor Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion asking for the unit cost of an affordable home at the site. In response, town manager Bernadette Kinsella said, “The contract construction prices is €7,005,236.59, exclusive of VAT, for the total scheme of 60 houses. This figure will be adjusted to reflect the type of house and to include consultants’ fees, legal fees and any other associated costs to arrive at a final unit cost.”She said that 135 applicants have sought affordable housing in the scheme. “Having regard to the existing database and current enquiries, it is expected that the number of qualifying applicants will exceed the number of units available.”Councillor McCafferty said that there is already “an abundance of …

IT’S not easy to rattle Timmy Ryan. Last Friday, the day after his 100th birthday, Timmy’s great grandchildren did their best. Quiet as a mini horde of mice initially, it emerged that the trio were conspiring to blow a few party poppers, which made a fair din but they didn’t shake the man of the house. One of the Knockalough man’s favourite pastimes, along with cross-country running, was shooting wild game. So he’s not unused to the odd outbreak of noise.His actual birthday, last Thursday, brought a fair bit of excitement with it. The first thing Timmy had to do was collect 110 birthday cards from Seán Killeen when the postman called. Then his phone started to ring. President McAleese was at the other end of the line giving a buzz to congratulate Timmy. He also heard from Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny. “He’s sending me a bottle of whiskey he said,” Timmy laughed, sitting in front of the fire …