West Clare

WHEN Charlie McGrath hit 60 at midnight on January 4, his increased age wasn’t the only thing weighing on his mind. The opening minutes of his sixth decade marked the end of Charlie’s time as a firefighter in Kilkee. He joined the service as a 19-year-old, 41 years ago in 1971, serving as an officer in the Kilkee station for 39 of those years. His longevity in the service outstrips every firefighter in the county.“In that time, I was fireman for two years, sub-officer for nine years and station officer for 30 years,” Charlie told The Clare Champion.During his 41-year stint, Charlie attended 2,000 call-outs in the Kilkee, Doonbeg and peninsula areas.“It varied from haybarns in my early days to bog fires, flooding, road traffic accidents and numerous types of fires,” he recalled.Loss of life was sometimes an unfortunate accompaniment to the call-outs. “That was the hard part of it. Being a small community and as a fuel merchant, going …

A KILRUSH toilet, described last September as “the most expensive piece of retail property in Ireland,” is to have the plug pulled on it by Kilrush Town Council.The council is to withdraw from its 20-year contract with Street Furniture Limited. The decision to withdraw from the contract will cost the council €53,000 plus VAT but will save up to €211,000. That is the total it would cost if the town were to remain bound to the contract. The council is tied into the public toilet contract until 2019.As a result of the 20-year contract the town council entered into in 1999, the rental of the toilet in the town square cost €201,301.51 between 2005 and 2010. During the same time period, the toilet realised just €9,940.49 from people paying to use it.Kilrush Town Councillor Paul Moroney described the town’s only public toilet as “the most expensive piece of retail property in Ireland,” at September’s town council meeting.The contentious toilet featured …

DESPITE concerns expressed by a local resident and the HSE, Clare County Council has given planning permission for a manufacturing facility, which will employ around six people at Lacken, Kilmihil.

CLARE County Council is investigating odours in Miltown Malbay believed to be related to the local sewerage scheme.

BALLYNACALLY’S Geraldine Kelly has recently returned from a trip to Ethiopia with the international children’s charity, Plan Ireland.While in East Africa, Geraldine witnessed first hand the impact emergency relief provided by the organisation is having on those affected by the current food crisis in the region.Ethiopia, and the Horn of Africa region in general, came into focus earlier this year when there was widespread media coverage of the urgent food crisis and drought that took hold of the region. Plan Ireland is an international children’s charity with a substantial long-term presence in Ethiopia.Geraldine, who is director of the business consultancy Xi Ventures, has been a board member of Plan Ireland since 2008 and was keen to visit the region to see the work being done, especially in the areas of education, food security, energy projects and microfinance.“Plan Ireland has been working on the ground in Ethiopia since 1974, so we are firmly established there and our support of women and …

ONE of Kilrush’s most famous streets reopened for business on Saturday, following significant road works carried out over the last seven weeks. However, Moore Street and nearby Steward Street only reopened to traffic at 4.30pm on Tuesday.To mark the event on Saturday, a street party was held in Moore Street, bringing together current and former residents. The street, which was home to 125 businesses in the 1840s, has since become dilapidated, with only a handful of businesses remaining open. The poor state of the road, which was the responsibility of the NRA, also hindered the possibility of reinvigorating the street.Local town councillors have been campaigning for several years to upgrade the street. At this month’s meeting of Kilrush Town Council, members suggested that the street should be supported in its efforts to rejuvenate.Although businesses experienced a slow down while the street was closed to vehicular access, Councillor Marian McMahon Jones, who is a business person on the street, said the …

Kilrush town manager Nora Kaye has described initial talks with Leader regarding the possibility of seeking funding to further develop the Vandeleur Walled Gardens in Kilrush as “very receptive and very encouraging”. The Leader Rural Development Programme’s main aim is to strengthen the rural economy and improve the quality of life in rural areas.

Bishop of Killaloe, Kieran O’Reilly, will join with the parishioners of Lisdeen church in Kilkee on Sunday to dedicate a newly installed stained glass window to St Flannan, patron of the Killaloe Diocese.