Regional

AN Ennis-based community art project is behind plans for an evening celebrating the journey towards motherhood through poetry, song and art next week.

A DECISION by An Bord Pleanála to overturn planning approval for a waste transfer station near Castleconnell is a boost for angling tourism in South-East Clare, a local community group has claimed.

CHILDREN in Kinvara were given something to cheer about recently when a new playground was opened on the grounds of St Joseph’s National School in the village.“It has made a huge difference to Kinvara as a whole not just the school. As well as being something fun for the children, it is a great new social point for young parents meeting up with each other while the children are playing,” Dominic Gallagher, principal of St Joseph’s told The Clare Champion.With more than 180 pupils in the school, the playground has certainly been busy since its opening at the end of August.A feature of the playground is that it caters for all ages, with specially designated junior and senior areas. A benefit of the equipment installed in the school is that some of the pieces could also be incorporated into the children’s PE lessons.“It is designed in such a way that it is almost an outdoor gym. There are different circuits …

NOWHERE in Galway has ever scooped the overall Tidy Towns Award. While Kinvara is not in a position to challenge for the title just yet, a small group of people are already working towards the day when the village will at least take part.Kinvara has not taken part in the national competition since 2002. Two years ago, there was renewed interest.“We had an organisation years ago but that stopped. Then two years ago we started again. One of the main things we do is a litter collection every second Saturday morning for an hour. We started that last year around February or March and it’s going well,” said Maria Hannigan, chairperson of the community council.On their regular clean-ups, the group noticed two recurring problems.“In the course of last year, we identified two areas that were very difficult and we wanted to tackle. One was cigarette butts on the ground outside pubs and the other was litter at bottle banks,” Maria …

A FORMER NASA scientist will be among those keeping a close eye on the skies over north Clare this weekend. Over the years, Ireland’s premier astronomy gathering has been the Whirlpool Star Party, which was usually held in Offaly, but this year the venue will be Clare and it has been renamed the Burren Starparty.The event is organised by the Shannonside Astronomy Club, in conjunction with Shannon Development, and takes place this Saturday. It is set to be a one-day and one night astronomy extravaganza.There will be public astronomical lectures, a telescope workshop and a night sky presentation in preparation for an evening observation session. The Burren is extremely suitable for this, as it has so little light pollution, ensuring some of the darkest skies in Europe.The location for the event will be the Burren Coast Hotel in Ballyvaughan and it will be split into two sections; morning/afternoon and evening/night time. Weather permitting, night-time viewing will be based at the …

TWO north Clare food firms scooped prestigious national awards this week. The Burren Smokehouse and Visitor Centre in Lisdoonvarna won the best producer accolade at the Good Food Ireland Awards, while Inagh Farmhouse Cheese won the Best Export Organic Product 2009 title at the National Organic Awards.

A TOTAL of €22,678 was raised from the 10th annual kidney support group charity walk in West Clare last May. The money was presented to the Irish Kidney Association (IKA) at a function in Tubridy’s, Cooraclare, last Saturday night.

IT was plain sailing at Lough Graney last Friday as Flagmount National School pupils took to the water on a boat made out of scrap wood and milk cartons. The vessel, which is entirely handmade out of recycled material, hoisted the Clare flag and set out on its maiden voyage on Lough Graney with 24 pupils aboard.The project was set into motion arising from the green transport schools’ programme and while the school had encouraged its pupils to cycle or walk to school, it was suggested by a local couple that the children could get involved in building their own mode of environmental transport.School principal, Pat McNamara outlined that Flagmount National School had been a hive of activity at the end of last term and the pupils were now being given an opportunity to see their hard work come to fruition.Nearly all of the pupils at the school were involved in helping with the assembly and collecting the recycled materials, …