West Clare

FOLLOWING the closure of Lissycasey Garda Station, Clare Garda Chief Superintendent John Kerin has said that he intends having two gardaí stationed at the re-opened Kilmihil station, which will be up and running on March 1. “There is going to be a full-time garda back there and, hopefully, a second one. That’s what Kilrush Superintendent Seamus Nolan wants to do and it’s something that I’ve said to him. If he can spare a garda from somewhere else and reallocate to Kilmihil to have two gardaí there, it certainly would be something I’d be in favour of,” Chief Superintendent Kerin confirmed. He said Kilmihil needs a full-time garda presence in the village. “Up to a couple of years ago, you had a garda station in Kilmihil, Doonbeg and Lissycasey. We’d see Kilmihil as being a central location for the three places and of the three centres, from a garda perspective, it would be by far the busiest. Perhaps there are more …

COORACLARE man, Martin Donnelly, who lives in Meath, has revealed details of a fundraising cycle on June 20 and 21. All proceeds from the two-day cycle, which will start in Clonea and conclude in Cooraclare, will be split between the West Clare Mini Marathon Cancer Fund and St Francis Hospice in Dublin 15. “This cycle is something that has been in my mind for a while,” Martin Donnelly told The Clare Champion. “You’re not going to cycle all that way without having a purpose to it. So I came up with the idea of calling it a Cycle In Remembrance. So people will do this in memory of somebody close to them who has passed away and, at the same time, raise much-needed funds for West Clare Cancer Care and St Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown, which is very close to Clonea. There are 60,000 to 80,000 people living in Dublin 15 and they have opened a six-bed hospice. They all …

KILRUSH man Paul Mulcaire, chairperson of Buffalo Fenians Gaelic Athletic Association, is to be honoured with the prestigious GAA President’s International Award. Paul was chosen due to his commitment to the organisation and promotion of Gaelic games. The awards are staged annually and provide the GAA president with an opportunity to acknowledge outstanding commitment and long service across the club, county and international network from people, whose highly-valued contribution is seldom recognised. The GAA President Awards are made up of 14 individual awards, with one award reserved for a recipient who resides outside of the country. Paul will travel to Ireland with family and friends to receive his award from GAA president Liam O’Neill, at an event in Croke Park on Friday, February 6. Paul played Gaelic football and hurling throughout his childhood with Kilrush Shamrocks, until he made the difficult decision to emmigrate to Buffalo, NY in 1986. Now a resident of Lancaster, Paul is married to Kathy and …

CLARE’S links with China stretch back to the early part of the last century, when several people from the west of the county served with the Shanghai police force and in the judiciary. In a week when Clare County Council voted to accept an invitation from the vice-president of Yunnan Province to visit the region in April or May, with a view to building links between the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark and the Stone Forest Geopark (Shilin Geopark), located in the south-west of China, historian Paddy Waldron has told The Clare Champion of the connection between Carrigaholt and Cross to Shanghai, in particular. Pat Keating from Fierd in Cross returned to Ireland from China in 1933 and later donated one thousand pounds for a marble altar in the Catholic church in the village, near his birthplace. He bought Plassey House, known as the White House to University of Limerick students, in 1933. He is thought to have got …

KILRUSH gardaí are appealing for witnesses following an incident in West Clare on Friday night. A woman who was walking home alone in Benvoran, Kilmurry McMahon at approximately 10.30pm was confronted by two men in their late teens or early 20s on foot and had her bag stolen. Anyone with any information about the incident or who may have seen anyone acting suspiciously in the area on Friday evening can contact Kilrush gardaí on 065 9080550.   Peter O’Connell

SCATTERY Island, located close to Kilrush in the Shannon Estuary,  is likely to face a long wait to be recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. At a meeting of the West Clare Municipal District, Independent Councillor Ian Lynch asked that the county council proceed with an application for the sixth century monastic settlement. However, in a written reply, Ger Dollard, director of services in tourism and community with Clare County Council, said that an application for World Heritage Site status is not within the remit of the local authority. The first step towards gaining status is to be included in the tentative UNESCO list but even that is unlikely. The last time this list was reviewed was in 2010 and prior to that in 1992. “It is unlikely that a review of the list will take place in the short term. It should be noted that the Burren was on the tentative list in 1992 and was again included …

A MEMORIAL service was held in the midlands last weekend  in memory of Cornelius and Angelique Billing, their children and extended family at Tullamore Presbyterian Church. The service was celebrated by South African Reverend Rasmus (Rassie) Erasmus following a request by Angelique’s (Angie) mother in South Africa and requests by the Irish South African community, following the Kildysart tragedy in which Cornelius and Angelique died. It was decided to hold the service at a central location to facilitate those who wished to travel to the memorial, which was celebrated in both Afrikaans and English. The service involved hymns, readings, prayers and a reflection on the bible. The 23rd Psalm, The Lord is my Shepherd, was the chosen reading for the memorial. Reverend Erasmus said, “The lives of Neels and Angie, although tragic, came as a real shock to us. We don’t want this to happen ever again that two people among us can have such a tough time. I speak …

A new steering group has been established to guide Kilrush’s participation in the 2015 International Entente Florale competition. The West Clare town has been selected to represent Ireland in the ‘Town’ category of the European-wide horticultural and environmental competition, which promotes the greening of towns and villages; development that is environmentally and ecologically sensitive; and education and communication initiatives which promote environmental awareness. Key to Kilrush’s nomination was its winning of the Tidiest Small Town category of the National Tidy Towns Competition in 2014. The membership of the Kilrush Entente Florale Steering Group, which held its first meeting recently, includes Clare County Council staff with expertise in landscaping, planning and tourism representatives from local groups such as the Tidy Towns Committee, Kilrush Chamber of Commerce, Kilrush and District Historical Society and Kilrush Amenity Trust.