Tag Archives: ballyvaughan

AN inquest has returned a verdict of manslaughter in accordance with the findings of the Central Criminal Court into the death of 43-year-old Ballyvaughan woman Deirdre McCarthy. Just days before the sixth anniversary of Ms McCarthy’s death, Colm Deely of School Road, Ballyvaughan was sentenced to eight years in prison for her manslaughter. He had denied murdering Ms McCarthy but in early March 2017 he pleaded guilty to her manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court. At a sitting of the County Coroner’s Court in Ennis on Thursday, an inquest found that Ms McCarthy’s death was due to asphyxia, with blunt force trauma as a contributory factor. County Coroner Isobel O’Dea said, in holding this inquest, she hoped it “helps to bring some closure to what was a tortured and arduous journey” for Ms Carthy’s family. Superintendent John Galvin, acting as coroner’s officer, offered his sympathies and those of An Garda Síochána, describing this case as something that has “been going …

The Galway Motor Club will host its annual hillclimb in Ballyvaughan this Saturday and Sunday. The event will form the opening two rounds of the Naylor Engineering National Hillclimb and Sprint Championship 2017. This year’s championship takes place over seven weekends, 14 rounds taking in some of the most scenic parts of Clare, Carlow, Wexford, Limerick, Waterford and Donegal. The organisers welcome back M Fitzgibbon Contractors Ltd as title sponsors of this year’s event, which will have its headquarters at Monks Pub, Ballyvaughan. Competitors will start arrive on Friday afternoon for an optional scrutiny, which will take place in Mooney’s Emo service station between 6pm and 8pm, where everybody is invited to view the cars and speak with the drivers. On Saturday morning, the drivers will head to the world-famous Corkscrew Hill. The 1.5km ribbon of tarmac winds its way up the famous hairpin section before opening out to a fast sweeping road. This provides a huge challenge for all the competitors! Sunday heads out the coast …

Investigations into the skeletal remains of a teenage boy discovered in a cave outside Ballyvaughan five years ago have shed new light on the life and death. A human skull discovered by cavers in the Burren in 2011 prompted a rescue archaeological excavation funded by the National Monuments Service of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. The full scientific investigations of the skeleton have just been published revealing incredible details about the youth, who died in the 16th or 17th century. At the time of excavation, the small size of the skeleton led the team to think it was of a child. However, subsequent analysis of the teeth in particular revealed the remains belonged to someone who had died aged 14 to 16 years old. There was evidence of stunted growth, almost certainly a result of malnutrition and hunger. The adolescent measured 4 ft. 1 inch in height – the equivalent of an average eight year old child …

THE tragic sea accident off Kilkee last September, which claimed the life of Doolin Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitríona Lucas during a search and recovery operation, will be recalled at The Clare Association dinner in The Falls Hotel, Ennistymon on Friday, February 25. In recognition of her bravery and making the ultimate sacrifice, the association will be giving her a posthumous award by naming her its Clare Person of the Year for 2017. The 41-year-old Ballyvaughan woman, who lived in Liscannor, lost her life when she was one of three volunteers on board a rigid inflatable boat, which capsized in choppy conditions while taking part in the search for a missing man. The two other volunteers, one of whom was trapped in a cave for several hours, were rescued. The Clare Association usually holds its annual function at a Dublin venue but due to the special circumstances surrounding this year’s award, the decision was made to facilitate the North Clare …

Gardai in North Clare are investigating a series of burglaries in Bellharbour, Ballyvaughan, Tubber and Crusheen during the past week. Between 12.15amand 7am last Saturday a shed was broken into in Turlough, Bellharbour by breaking the lock. A garden strimmer was stolen but was subsequently recovered dumped in a nearby ditch. The car that was parked nearby had its rear window smashed and a chainsaw stolen from the boot. Last weekend also, a shed in Muckinish, Ballyvaughan was also entered by breaking the lock. Stolen were a Netlfix Alto power washer, an MS 180 chainsaw, a pole saw and a pick axe. Earlier in the week a shed was broken into in Turloghmore in Boston, Tubber. Stolen in this burglary were a variety of wrenches and a Stihl orange-colured chainsaw. A double axle trailer was stolen from Clare County Council’s storage yard at Crusheen over the weekend. Between 4pm last Friday and 8am on Monday, the council yard in Clonmoney …

America’s most influential Catholic, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, visited County Clare this week. Cardinal Dolan is leading a pilgrimage of Catholics from across the US to Knock Shrine. He arrived at Ireland West Airport on Sunday aboard the first chartered pilgrim flight from the US into the Mayo airport. The 180-strong group visited the Burren and Cliffs of Moher before taking the ferry from Killimer to Tarbert as part of their nine-day itinerary. The Cardinal took time out from his engagements to travel to Ballyvaughan on Tuesday morning to visit a friend of his, local artist Richard Hearns. “Cardinal Dolan has been a great support to me over the years. I was delighted he was in a position to come to Ballyvaughan on this trip and visit me and to see my recent work in the studio,” Richard told The Clare Champion. Richard was born in Beirut and raised in Dublin but has lived in Ballyvaughan …

THE President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Joachim Gauck, was in “God’s wide fields” in Ballyvaughan for the first of a two-stage visit to Clare this week. Mr Gauck, accompanied by his partner Ms Daniela Schadt, was delighted to be visiting the Droney’s 90 hectare Origin Green farm in Ballycahill, near Ballyvaughan and to be surrounded by 200 beef suckler cows and 200 sheep, a vista, he admitted, that brought him back to his childhood in post-war Germany. “For me, it is so good,” Mr Gauck told The Clare Champion. “In my youth, I saw so many cows outside and now, if I go back to my home area in the north of Germany, no cows are outside, sheep are a little bit but the cows are all inside in a shed. “This is a programme that works with the support of the Government and the influence of the European Union to support this kind of agriculture, not the …

A North Clare-based GP has launched a High Court action over the Health Service Executive’s decision that he does not qualify for payments under a scheme designed to ensure services are provided to medical card-holders in rural areas. The action has been brought by Dr Liam Glynn, a GP working out of Ballyvaughan and Fanore, arising out of a decision by the HSE earlier this year that he no longer qualified for payments under a scheme known as the Rural Practice Allowance. The scheme applies where a doctor lives and practices in a centre with a population of less than 500 people and where there is not a town with a population of 1,500 or more within a three-mile radius of that. He provides medical services  from Ballyvaughan Medical Centre and Fanore Dispensary, and makes numerous house calls to patients every week. The HSE in correspondence with Dr Glynn said its decision was based on the fact that Dr Glynn …