Regional

THE creative talents of two pupils from St Joseph’s Secondary School in Spanish Point have put them and their school in the running for national honours.

Galway County Council is urging Gort residents to conserve water after consumption shot up by nearly 30% and a number of homes were left without water since before Christmas.

A Kinvara company last week launched a major initiative, which will see trade-ins taken on hurling helmets.MARC Sports launched its novel scrappage scheme for hurling helmets, which is due to be rolled out nationwide over the coming weeks, in Croke Park where the company also unveiled current Galway hurler and All-Star Joe Canning as its newest brand ambassador.

THERE is plenty of land zoned for an increased population around Ennistymon in the coming years, according to the Draft Mid-West Regional Planning Guidelines 2010-22.

PEOPLE will be given a taste of how the Kett family from Rathclooney, Crusheen deal with cystic fibrosis in a new TV3 documentary series about organ transplant patients.

In 2008, Chrys Gardener and her husband Bill Carini immigrated to Ireland from Ithaca in New York State to further pursue their careers as landscape gardeners.

A garda chief in Killaloe has issued an appeal to those in the East Clare area to be aware of bogus callers, particularly in light of the current problems regarding water shortages and flooding.

ENNIS slipped way down the rankings in the new IBAL anti-litter survey but the findings need to be taken with a pinch of salt, according to some local public representatives.The town was ranked 46 out of the 60 towns and cities (down from a previous high of second place) surveyed with Ennis now categorised as “moderately littered” compared to previously being considered “clean to European norms”. All participating towns are monitored by An Taisce and the assessors found that Ennis had slipped badly with two black spots – the Department of Social Welfare on the Kilrush Road which they described “as shockingly dirty” and the link road from the Camus garage to Caheralla Road which was “heavily littered”.The assessors warned that there had been a very significant drop in the performance at Ennis since the previous IBAL Anti Litter Survey. “Being clean is a 365-day responsibility of the local authority. Five of the sites surveyed in Ennis were clean to …