Regional

THE completion of the proposed €66,000 historic tourist trail in Killaloe under a new scheme designed by Clare County Council should result in another increase in marks for the town in the Tidy Towns’ competition next year.

A Parteen man has recorded the highs and lows during a gruelling 10,500km charity cycle from Cairo to Capetown with three of his college friends through which over €26,000 has been raised.

FOR the second year in a row, Ennistymon are preparing to host a guilt-free culinary treat when the Clare Harvest Banquet takes place early next month. Organising an event that would stand up as something which people would want to support, even if the money was not going to charity, was a challenge embraced by Sinéad Ní Gharbhith.

A well-known scientist who spent the past year working with a North Clare project recently won a coveted British award for her ability to communicate scientific research to a non-specialist audience.

THE first citizens of Clare and Kilkee, Mayors Tony Mulcahy and Lily Marrinan-Sullivan were on hand for the Clare Inclusive Research Group’s first public interactive drama performance of Leaving Home at Garrihy’s Bar, Moyasta last Thursday afternoon, which was organised by the Brothers of Charity, Kilrush. There was an air of expectation in the community on the eve of the Nell Galvin Festival but all eyes at the packed function room were firmly fixed on the research acting troupe.Following a forum theatre format, first devised by Brazilian social dramatist Augusto Boal to help landless farmers stand up for their rights, the audience or as Boal termed them, the “engaged onlookers”, are drawn into the drama to suggest ways of solving a problem; in this case the problem of people with a learning disability overcoming over-protective families, officious social workers and the long arm of the law. After “spectactors” Teresa O’Dea and Orla MacMahon tried to placate a forbidding potential mother-in-law, …

PARNELL Street is “dying” and has become a “second-class citizen” compared to other streets in the town, local traders have claimed. Business people operating from Parnell Street raised concerns about the future of the pedestrianised street to members of Ennis Town Council this week.Speaking at this week’s meeting, Noreen Twomey Walsh commented that the recent economic downturn and flood relief works have compounded problems for businesses. “We recognise the necessity of the flood relief works but they are lingering with no end in sight,” she said.

THE Clare Shout Cup has sat proudly on Mary Murphy’s mantel in Kilkishen for the last year but will it remain there for another as the annual competition to find the best Clare Shout heats up?Mary is going to give it another go this year to retain the title but she admits that she would also be happy to pass on the accolade to another worthy opponent, should one emerge from the crowd on Saturday, September 19.

A BRIEF stint as a drug dealer in Ros na Rún may have caused something of an identity crisis for a performer with Clare roots and recently the Leaving Cert inspired him to shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Electric Picnic. So, what next for Aindrias De Staic?Son of well-known Ennistymon man Eddie Stack, Aindrias is no stranger to story-telling or to music or indeed to comedy and he has cemented all three together in building his career as a performer. Splitting his time between Melbourne and Galway, Aindrias has just returned from three weeks taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where he won a coveted ThreeWeeks Editors’ Award for his show The Summer I Did the Leaving.