Regional

Almost 500 local visitors made their way to The Cliffs of Moher on Monday to take part in St Brigid’s Day festivities. The first day of spring is an important day for the area, especially this year, as the first ever Cliffs of Moher Marathon was launched.The half marathon will take place in September 2010 between Doolin and Lahinch and is expected to draw as many as 1,200 participants in its inaugural year. Representatives of the Clare Crusaders, Special Olympics Ireland and St Vincent de Paul, who are among the charities who will benefit from the event, attended the launch along with representatives from the Clare Sports Partnership and the Clare Tourism Forum who, together with the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience, have worked with Feel Good Events, the race organiser, to bring the run to North Clare. Organisers are hoping it will become an annual event.   At Monday’s open day, the visitors enjoyed a programme of events that celebrated …

EAST Clare Community Support is to remain in place after the community development programme were threatened with closure arising from Government budgetary cuts. The East Clare group appealed the decision to the CDP Appeals Board last month and disputed the three reasons cited by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs as grounds to shut the facility down. The department had deemed 30 of the 180 community development programme organisations nationwise as no longer viable and East Clare Community Support was one of 14 organisations to successfully appeal and remain in operation. However, while the organisation was successful, it now means that it will amalgamate with the other CDPs in Clare – the Clare Women’s Network, Ennis CDP and will now come under the remit of the Clare Local Development Company. East Clare Community Support (ECCS), which employs one full-time and two part-time CDP staff, services from Killanena to Kilkishen and from Tulla to Whitegate and was established in …

WHITEGATE resident and yogic nun, Didi O’Driscoll has been collecting toys, clothes and other items from the East Clare community to raise funds for Haiti and this week, she will take the proceeds from her jumble sale to Port au Prince as she joins the relief effort.Didi, an American national who settled in Whitegate five years ago, has been involved with AMURTEL, an international NGO, for roughly 20 years. She has worked in India, Brazil and Somalia with the homeless and destitute and she will now return to that work in Haiti. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Didi explained that Amurtel had two schools operating in Port-au-Prince. One of those, thankfully still intact, is where the group is offering emergency medical care to those affected by the recent earthquake.  “I’m a trained EMT (emergency medical technician) and I expect that when I go over, I will be working with the most vulnerable, women, children and older people. I know we …

PLANS to build a state-of-the art €10 million nursing home in Westbury have been met with several objections.In a submission to Clare County Council, An Taisce claimed the site wasn’t within walking distance of shops and bus routes and didn’t have easy access to rooms in the nursing home for those with disabilities.It stated that toilet facilities were not disability friendly and there appeared to be only one shared bathroom on each corridor.“Our main concern is water management, the proximity of the River Shannon and flooding. “The site has major drainage problems and we do not feel that the water and sewage would be adequate for the established EU drinking water and that waste disposal systems would be within the performance of the EU water framework for surface and ground water protection,” the submission stated.The Athlunkard Partnership, comprising a group of Mid-Western businessmen, is seeking planning permission to construct a two-storey nursing home consisting of 110 single en-suite bedrooms, day …

A SHANNON mother was thrown into crisis after her family was hit by a gastric bug causing vomiting and diarrhoea, while her house was without running water.Sue Egan was without running water for 10 days and without heating for two, due to persistent freezing conditions earlier this month.She lives in Cúl na Gréine with her nine-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter and they were without running water from January 2 to 13.Things were particularly bad after her son contracted the bug. “On January 9, I had to bring my son to ShannonDoc because he was vomiting and had diarrohea. We needed running water and I called a plumber because I thought it was the pipes, not the mains. He couldn’t fix it though.”Sue also contracted the bug and while they have had running water back for some time now, on Tuesday, they were still without it in the upstairs part of their home.Also on Tuesday, Shannon got its regular water supply …

SEVEN-year-old Cian Wall from Quin made all the right moves last weekend as he went on to scoop the U-8 Munster title at the Munster Junior Chess Championships in Limerick.Cian, who plays at the Doora Chess Club, has been playing the intricate game of chess since he was five years of age, when he became intrigued by a chess set given to him by his aunt. The seven-year-old, who goes to Scoil na Mainistreach in Quin, was keen dto learn and joined the Doora Chess Club soon after. Having competed at U-7 level in the Munster and All-Ireland Chess Championships 2009, he was one move away from securing the Munster title that year but went on to compete and be placed joint fourth at the national event. This year, Cian along with his family, friends and two coaches was on a high as he claimed the 2010 Munster title. Cian will now compete at the national championships, which this year …

A NEWLY opened Ennis institution was this week named Ireland’s top hostel by a leading international website. The eighth annual Hoscars (Hostelworld Customer Annual Ratings) named three Clare establishments in the top four hostels in the country.Hostelworld customers selected Ennis’s Rowan Tree Hostel as Ireland’s best hostel. While there has been a hostel on the Harmony Row site for a number of years, The Rowan Tree Hostel only opened last year after an extensive renovation and refurbishment of the existing building.Marianne Maurer and her husband Brian O’Neil run the hostel and attended Tuesday night’s award ceremony in Dublin. “We received a certificate and will be sent on a plaque recognising our achievement. We think this will be a huge benefit to us. We are only just open a year and hopefully, it will be good for the summer and bring more people to Ennis and the mid-west,” Marianne told The Clare Champion.  The Ennis establishment knocked last year’s number one …