West Clare

A tempest of creative energy is about to be unleashed in Kilkee in mid-October (14 and 15) with the inaugural Play Wrighters’ Festival of Kilkee. In what’s primed to be a key west coast event on the literary calendar, a clarion call is going out to writers around the county to set fire to their imaginations impelled by the incendiary times we live and record the consequences in pieces of transformative theatre. Hosted by The Stella Maris Hotel and The Greyhound Bar, play readings and writing workshops will be the main features of the two-day event with political activist/writer John Arden and his wife Margaretta D’Arcy taking centre stage. They will read two extracts from their acclaimed treatise to George Moore.  Leading the local literary charge is drama activist Jenny Walsh Bassett, who has spread her contact net wide and bagged some big fish, cultivating her friendship with the Galway-based dissident writer Arden and his wife and artistic collaborator the …

A band with strong West Clare connections has made it to the final two of a national competition and is now looking for the public’s support to see them interviewed in the country’s best-known music magazine.Swords drummer Ian Frawley is from Kilrush and singer Diane Anglim’s father is from Kilmihil. They are joined by Jarlath Canning in the alternative-pop trio. Swords is one of two bands remaining in contention for the coveted exposure in Hot Press magazine.“We are constantly looking for good opportunities as a band. Good, credible opportunities for gigs and getting our music out there. We saw the competition in Hot Press and submitted one of our tracks, Chasm. There was a judging process, completely based on the songs, and we are now down to the final two, which is open to public vote and we really need people to vote for us online once every day,” explains Cappa man Ian. Winning the competition, Ian believes, will be …

THE likelihood of building a roundabout at a notorious Kilrush junction has been ruled out by Clare County Council, who stated the National Roads Authority does not have the money to fund the project.

NEW Kilrush traffic bylaws, which were adopted at last week’s meeting of the town council, will come into effect on Monday, October 17.

Monday’s meeting of Kilkee Town Council heard that there will be no local authority houses built in Kilkee in the foreseeable future. Instead, the town council will be relying upon renting private housing to meet the need of social housing in the town.

Raidió Corca Baiscinn is to broadcast a series entitled The Locals, which incorporates 20 programmes that focuses on “the sonic beauty of the landscape of South West Clare and the creatures that inhabit it”.

The deadline for making submissions to the 2012-2018 Draft West Clare Local Area Plan is next Monday.

The Strand, Kilkee, was host to the annual fancy dress fundraiser in aid of The Hope Foundation, Calcutta, last Thursday. Local woman Ann Marie Murray, home from India for a break, was surrounded by friends to help raise funds for the charity, which works for the street children in Calcutta. Ann Marie has worked as a volunteer in the city of 22 million people, helping street children and those most at risk for almost a decade. Each year, she helps to support thousands of children and adults to receive lifesaving treatment on the streets and in the slums of one of the most deprived cities in the world. Whilst living in Calcutta, Anne Marie shares a protection home with 40 adolescent girls and has become a beacon of hope on the streets of the city. Her tirelessness, humility and her generosity of spirit have touched the lives of many over the years and she continues to stress the generosity which …