West Clare

WITH the support of the Kilrush Town Council’s 2010 Grant Scheme Assistance for Community Development Projects and in partnership with the Clare Youth Project based in the John Paul Estate in Kilrush, Raidió Corca Baiscinn has recently completed a six-module training course with five young budding radio DJs.The course involved taking a group of five girls aged between 14 and 16 through some basic radio production tutorials, which culminated in a half-hour magazine show produced, scripted and presented by the girls themselves. The tutorials took place in the resource centre in the John Paul Estate for two hours every Friday with their co-ordinators and Conan Brophy, the station’s volunteer trainer.The group began by talking about the kind of programmes they could make. Once the girls had decided they wanted a mix of interviews, chat and music, they set about following the steps required to gather the content. They covered interview technique, scripting, microphone technique, including mobile recorder use, and presenting. …

KILRUSH has been awarded a gold medal in Category D of the annual National Tidy Towns Competition. The award was announced by Environment Minister John Gormley in Dublin on Monday.Kilrush scored 300 points, which was an increase of two points on last year’s result, to beat off competition from all over Ireland and claim the accolade. The maximum total achievable is 400 points. The town first received its gold medal award in 2007 and since then has been gradually increasing its marks year on year.Category D is for towns of between 2,501 and 5,000 people.For the first time, St Senan’s Primary School in Kilrush also won a special schools award for the Mid-West region for their role in working with the local tidy towns committee.“Retaining the gold medal is a massive achievement for everybody involved, as at this level the competition gets more difficult,” Murt Collins, chairman of Kilrush Tidy Towns Committee said.He added that the award marks the culmination …

THE Clare Association of New York City will honour John Hogan (Kilmurry McMahon) and Monica O’Connor (Kildysart) at their 122nd annual ball on Saturday, October 16.

ON Sunday, September 26, the 90th anniversary of the Rineen Ambush will be marked with a programme of events in the locality. At 10.40am, the Irish Defence Forces will stage a guard of honour at St Mary’s Church in Moy, which will be inspected by Minister for Defence Tony Killeen at 10.55am.A mass of remembrance will then take place, followed by a gathering at Rineen Monument. The crowd will be addressed by the chairperson of the Rineen Ambush Commemoration Committee and by the minister. Flowers will also be laid, while The Rineen Ambush will be sung and the National Anthem played. This will be followed by a commemorative lunch in the Armada Hotel, which will host an exhibition of War of Independence memorabilia.On September 22, 1920, one of the most remarkable encounters of the War of Independence took place at Dromin Hill, Rineen. The purpose of the act was to get revenge for the murder of Martin Devitt, an Irish …

KILKEE town councillors have expressed anger and surprise that a planning application to erect a 20m high communications mast on the Kilrush Road in Kilkee was not made known to them.

ALTHOUGH the Kilkee beach bylaws came into force on June 1 last, town councillors have expressed their amazement that signs indicating that the bylaws are in place were only erected in late August, towards the end of the summer season.

A PLANNING application for a wind farm to be built across the townlands of Coor West, Mullagh, Shanovough East, Miltown and Shanovough West is at pre-validation stage with Clare County Council.

A wind energy development co-operative in West Clare has received planning permission from Clare County Council to construct the largest community-owned wind farm development in Ireland.It is predicted that 300 jobs will be created during the construction stage of the project, which incorporates the company and 30 local farm families. Developers have said that the local community will be afforded first preference regarding construction work and full-time employment once the wind farm is up and running.West Clare Renewable Energy Ltd. (WCRE) plans to construct 28 3MW wind turbines on the western slopes of Mount Callan, a 391-metre high mountain, located between Ennis and Miltown Malbay. The company says the that the €200 million project will be capable of generating enough electricity to power every home and business in Clare, as well as meeting the Limerick – Clare Energy Agency’s 2010 targets for emissions reductions and renewable energy production. The scheme is predicted to reduce carbon emissions over its lifetime by …