Tag Archives: Australia

Images of Ireland, including the west coast of Clare, have been beamed into the homes of more than one million Australians – in a brand new cookery series fronted by Dublin-born chef and restaurateur Colin Fassnidge. My Ireland with Colin is a new two-part cookery series which sees Fassnidge return home to discover the changing face of food in Ireland. Channel 7 in Australia – working with Tourism Ireland in Sydney – produced the new series which has aired to an audience of more than one million viewers. In the show, viewers see Colin learns to surf off the west coast of Clare! Fassnidge, who has become a celebrity chef in his adopted Australia, runs two successful restaurants in Sydney and is a guest judge on a popular cooking game show called My Kitchen Rules, which airs in Australia (also on Channel 7). Last autumn, he rode a Ducati 1200 around Ireland, followed closely by his film crew capturing footage …

HAVING represented his club on the football fields of Clare for 22 years, Odran O’Dwyer is acclimatising to life on the sidelines. The self-employed Mullagh man made his debut as a Kilmurry Ibrickane senior selector in the side’s one-point Cusack Cup win over Lissycasey last week. A Kilmurry senior footballer since 1993, O’Dwyer retires from playing with seven senior championship medals in his pocket, accompanied by two Munster club and six Cusack Cup medals. He represented Clare at every level, while he also played for Ireland in 2003, when they travelled to take on Australia in the compromise rules series. O’Dwyer had six pins inserted in his shoulder, when he underwent shoulder reconstruction surgery recently, which will take several months to heal fully. “Time catches up with you and the legs get slower. There’s nothing you can do. I had said to the family that 2014 was my last year,” he told The Clare Champion this week. O’Dwyer cites 2004 …

HOLOCAUST survivor Henri Korn will be the subject of a portrait by O’Callaghan’s Mills man, Thomas Delohery, which will be submitted for the prestigious Archibald Prize and judged by the trustees of the New South Wales Gallery in Australia, where both men now live. Henri was born in Germany and was barely nine years old when he witnessed the murder of his friend, Leo Troski and Leo’s parents during Kristallnacht. He survived World War II on false papers, living in hiding and working with a group of young men in the shadows, whose task it was to relay information about German troop movements to the Allies. Thomas is a creative artist and painter and has long held an interest in the Holocaust, while he is acutely aware of the suffering of the victims at the hands of the Nazis. His portrait of Henri will not be a conventional one. Now aged 85, Henri is uncomfortable with the label ‘child’ Holocaust …

An injury to his left foot during a training session in July 2013 has finally caught up with Munster’s Damien Varley. The 31-year-old hooker has three caps for Ireland and made 121 appearances for the province, scoring 12 tries. Damien, who lives near Killaloe, has only made one substitute appearance for the province this season in the victory over Leinster in October. He underwent surgery three months ago on the injury but has decided to retire after exhausting all possible avenues to a return. He played club rugby with Garryowen before joining the Munster set-up. He joined London Wasps in 2008 but returned to Munster the following year and shared in some of the provinces greatest moments. He started in Munster’s historic win over Australia in Thomond Park in November 2010 and was the starting hooker in the province’s Magners League winning Grand Final against Leinster in May 2011. Varley first represented Ireland against Australia in June 2010, and his …

SCARIFF resident Lynn Von Lintzgy’s life was turned upside down when she was diagnosed with cancer in August 2012 and again when it returned last year. Now her son has chosen to embark on a life-changing journey of his own in solidarity. Daniel Watson, who has been living in Australia for the past 13 years, was so moved by his mother’s battle with cancer that he decided to set off on a five-month expedition across Australia by walking from Perth to Sydney. Walking on average 50km a day, Daniel aims to cover the 4,690km journey by early March, having set off on October 20. Inspired by his mother’s positive attitude and by the support she is receiving locally at Clare Cancer Support Centre, he left his job in Sydney, hopped on a flight to Perth and began his challenge. Daniel, who is 34, moved to Australia in 2002 where he began working for the Australian Radio Network in Sydney but …

WHILE there was joy unconfined at Shannon Airport in the days before Christmas as emigrants arrived, the other side of the coin can be seen this week, as families wave off their loved ones. Antoinette Jenkins came home from Perth, with her husband, Mark, and their three children. Her parents, Sean and Mary Nestor, were saying goodbye to them in the terminal on Tuesday afternoon. Temperatures in Perth regularly hit 30oC during December, which was in stark contrast to the wintry conditions at Shannon but the weather didn’t dim her enjoyment of the visit at all. “We had a lovely time. It was great to be back and to see all the family. It’s very, very hot there [in Perth] and very cold here but we love the change, so it’s all good.” She has been in Australia for 18 years and is well settled there now. “It’s great, we’ve lots of friends there but it’s also great to get …

FAMILIES were reunited, tears were shed and hugs swapped as emigrants returning for Christmas arrived at Shannon this week. On Monday afternoon, the Heathrow-Shannon flight was packed with people arriving home from various corners of the world, with dozens waiting in the terminal to greet them.   Michelle Davitt of Galway was at Shannon to collect her brother, who manages a restaurant in Washington. “He hasn’t been home for Christmas in 12 years, so it’s a long time. He has been home during summers and stuff, but not for Christmas,” she said. She was the only member of her family who knew he was coming, as his arrival was being kept as a seasonal surprise. Deirdre O’Rourke was waiting for her brother, Sean. “He’s coming from England and it’s the first time in 21 years he’s been home for Christmas. We’re really looking forward to it and we’re going to make a show of him.” When he stepped through the …

Dromoland Castle and the Cliffs of Moher are among 12 Irish businesses touring New Zealand and Australia this week. During the eight-day sales blitz, they will meet hundreds of influential travel agents, tour operators and journalists, during specially tailored business-to-business workshop sessions and networking events – telling them all about what the island of Ireland has to offer holidaymakers. Tourism Ireland’s final overseas trade mission of 2014 takes in the cities of Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Jim Paul, Tourism Ireland’s head of Australia and developing markets, said: “Australia and New Zealand are important markets for tourism to the island of Ireland, delivering a record 206,000 visitors last year, representing growth of 16% over 2012. Visitors from these markets are important, as they tend to stay longer than other holidaymakers, typically six to eight nights, they travel right around the island and many of them come here in the off-season. According to the latest CSO figures, visitor numbers from …