Regional

Pupils and teachers at St Joseph’s Secondary School in Tulla said farewell to outgoing school principal Jim Cooney recently as he embarked on his retirement following 38 years of service to education.Jim was the principal at St Joseph’s for the past seven years, prior to that he taught at St Patrick’s Comprehensive in Shannon, where he worked for 30 years. It was not easy, however, for Jim to leave the school last week. He admits that it was extremely difficult because he had such an attachment to the school, its staff and to the community of Tulla.“It was a particular challenge to take up the principal’s job in the school where I am from. I warmed to the school immediately. I warmed to staff and the community and I was very lucky in the staff that I got when I came there. They have been great people to work with. They are very committed to the school and dedicated and …

A NORTH Clare man has just released an EP to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Christmas Truce, which took place in World War I. Jerry Lynch from Kilfenora recorded Requiem For a Soldier, which he co-produced with Don Mullan to honour the remarkable 1914 event.“I decided to make this recording to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the Christmas Truce in 1914 which is coming up this Christmas. I had heard a few songs I felt would make a nice themed package for this occasion and I think anyone who has heard the album has been impressed. The two duets with Sarah Dolan, and Liam Lawton’s The Cloud’s Veil combined with my own song make a lovely mixture. John Condon is a very moving song which reminds us of all the men who were only boys and suffered in this awful war,” Jerry told The Clare Champion.Jerry is from a well-known family in North Clare, many of whom are involved …

THIS year, the Christmas market in Ballyvaughan Community Hall will run on two weekends before Christmas, this Saturday and Sunday as well as the following Saturday, December 19 and Sunday, December 20.   As well as many familiar faces from the Ballyvaughan Farmers’ Market, a number of other food producers from North Clare will take part in the Christmas events, offering an unrivalled variety of quality food produce, much of it with a festive theme. Among the products available will be seasonal vegetables and fruit, traditional home baking including breads, cakes, biscuits and confectionary, locally produced cheeses, honey and fruit wines, handmade preserves such as jellies, pickles, chutneys, flavoured oils, jams and sauces, quality olive oil, wines, food hampers, along with mistletoe and plants and flowers for both inside and outside the house specially suited to the winter season.  There will also be a wide selection of meats and fish available each day.Alongside the food produce will be a varied selection …

  South Galway, famous for its influence on Ireland’s literary heritage, could soon be equally well-known for its impact on the modern Australian political landscape if Gort Lion’s Club gets its way.The club is currently pursuing a plan to erect a memorial to one of Gort’s most powerful and far reaching sons, Paddy McMahon Glynn. As well as running a legal practice and editing a newspaper, the busy South Galway man also held two ministries, a role as Australian Attorney General and even had a hand in drafting his adopted country’s constitution.“The McMahon Glynn family were from Gort and their original home is understood to be the site of the AIB bank in the town. I think it was a general store at the time. Paddy McMahon Glynn was the third of 11 children and received his primary education with the Sister’s of Mercy in Gort before qualifying as a solicitor and moving to Australia in 1880,” explains Peter Minihane …

  Gort Chamber of Commerce is urging people in its hinterland to support local businesses after extensive flooding caused major disruption to its traditionally strong pre-Christmas trading. According to the chamber, a number of businesses in the town were forced to close due to flooding on their premises, while others closed because of a lack of customers. There is concern, however, that some of these closures will be permanent if companies cannot recover from the loss of business caused by the closure of the N18 and a number of secondary routes into Gort.“Businesses are very concerned because this should have been their busiest time of year but the floods seriously affected access to the town. Some people have closed their shops because they were so quiet. There was no traffic getting through. If all the access routes to the town don’t open soon and remain open, some people fear that they might have to stay closed because they haven’t made …

THE 2009 Kilrush Tidy Towns Awards were presented at Looney’s Bar in John Street recently.  

  A NORTH Clare food company has picked up one of Ireland’s top business awards at a ceremony in Dublin. The Burren Smokehouse, Lisdoonvarna, was presented with the Seafood Exporter Award 2009 at the 2009 Exporter of the Year Awards held at the Concert Hall at the RDS in Dublin last Thursday.The Seafood Exporter Award 2009 recognises companies in the seafood sector that have made significant progress in securing and building export markets for Irish seafood.Burren Smokehouse outshone companies like Glenmar Shellfish Limited and Ummera Smoked Products Limited to win the title. The North Clare company was acknowledged for its success in exporting 60% of its smoked organic and premium salmon, trout and mackerel to the USA, Europe and Japan.Birgitta Hedin Curtin, proprietor of the Burren Smokehouse, said, “This was a particularly sweet award to get. It took me a little while to realise we deserved this. I always thought we were only a little place on the west coast …

The National Tourism Conference, which took place in Ennistymon at the weekend and generated tens of thousands of euro for the local economy, will be held in the town again next year, organisers confirmed.