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Tag Archives: christmas

A vintage Christmas in Ennis

It’s that time of the year again, when The Clare Champion urges Ennis businesses to go all out with some festive flair and decorate their windows for Christmas. This year’s Christmas window display competition is expected to be bigger and better than ever before, with increasing numbers of businesses getting involved year on year. The theme for this year’s competition, open to all shops and businesses in Ennis, is A Vintage Christmas. While the theme has been inspired by this year’s centenary anniversary of 1916, retailers can chose from any time period of the past when it comes to decorating their windows. Shelly Galvin of The Clare Champion explained, “When choosing this year’s theme, we decided on A Vintage Christmas as our nod to the 1916 celebrations. But we’ve opened it up so people can pick from any time, so long as its vintage. The theme can be showcased across as many windows as you wish. This is about harking …

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90,000 apply for Santa’s Shannon flights

Santa remains top of the popularity polls with the very young as the great man’s annual Christmas flights at Shannon Airport have attracted 90,000 applications. Shannon Airport has received 45 times the number of requests for the 2,000 seats on the very special services to meet Santa in the sky on December 3 and 4 next, which is an increase of over 55% on the corresponding stage 12 months ago. Applications have been received from each one of the 32 counties and, indeed, from as far afield as the UK. The top ten counties in terms of applications include Clare, Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Tipperary, accounting for over 60% of the applications. Said Matthew Thomas, CEO of Shannon Group, which operates Shannon Airport: “We are delighted at the incredible demand for these flights but can’t say we’re entirely surprised. Is there really a better draw than Santa! “Airports are a magical place at Christmas as they are where homecomings …

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Christmas Swim at Gortglas Lake (Photo Gallery)

Hardy souls took to the water at beaches and lakes around the county on Christmas Day to raise funds for charities. Our photographer John Kelly travelled to Gortglas Lake in Kildysart where swimmers took their annual dip at midday, raising much needed funds for the West Clare Mini marathon Cancer fund. [doptg id=”90″]  

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Christmas at the coalface of Syrian crisis

BACK in 1995, Mountshannon woman Ann McNamara decided to leave her job with an insurance company and work with Concern in Bangladesh for a two-year period. More than 20 years later, she is still working with an organisation responding to crisis situations. An assistant country director with GOAL, based in Antakya on the Turkey/Syria border for six months, Ann says spending Christmas away from home and family has become the norm. “Over the 22 years I have been overseas, I have probably spent two or three Christmases back in Ireland,” she says. “This is normal for me. It’s so crazy here you don’t even realise it’s Christmas.” Ann initially worked with Concern for 11 years as a regional HR advisor, before working with Oxfam and then Save the Children UK in South Sudan. She returned to Concern in 2011 to work as an assistant country director in Liberia for two years and then spent one year in Lebanon. “I finished my …

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Finding comfort at nativity at the Height

THE spirit of Christmas is set to be brought out onto the streets of Ennis in a very special way this week. On Christmas Eve, a nativity scene crib will be set up at O’Connell Square, highlighting the spiritual meaning of the holiday season to passersby on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. This is the second year that the crib has been installed at the prominent Ennis location. The crib will be in place from 2pm to 4.30pm on Thursday. As well as the nativity scene, there will be festive music from the Wylde Roses choir and the Clarecastle Youth Choir, and some mince pies on the day. Ennis priest Fr Ger Fitzgerald who is behind the endeavour explained, “The whole idea behind the crib is to show people another side of the church, in that the church is not just four walls. It is a part of life, the church wants to identify with people’s …

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Home for the holidays

AROUND 57,000 passengers are set to arrive into the country through Shannon for Christmas, sparking countless emotional scenes and moments at the airport. On Tuesday afternoon, Paddy Fitzgerald from Corofin was waiting for his daughter Catherine and her husband to arrive from London. He said his daughter had been born in England and after coming back to live in Ireland, had returned to London again. “Catherine was born there, Richard is an Englishman. Catherine would have been home and then went back in the early 1980s. They’re staying for a week and going back for New Year’s.” Frances and Seamus Cahill from Galway were waiting for their daughter, Rowena, son-in-law and one-year-old grand-daughter, Celia.This will be their first time to have a grandchild in the house for Christmas. “We’re looking forward to it. We’ve pushed the boat out and we’re hoping everything will be good,” said Seamus. There was much excitement when Rowena arrived with her daughter Celia walking beside …

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Clearing Christmas waste campaign 

A campaign aimed at promoting good recycling practices and cutting down on the mountains of waste sent to landfill over the Christmas period has been launched. The Southern Region Waste Management Office has published a list of items that often end up contaminating recycling bins having been mistakenly identified as recyclable. Among the items are foil containers or crisp bags, crisp tubes, jars, nappies, plastic film and soiled packaging. “Recyclables get rejected if the recycling companies spot contamination that can spoil the quality of the recycled materials and the sorting machinery,” explained Pauline McDonogh, Regional Waste Prevention Co-ordinator, Southern Waste Region. “This waste can be very expensive to dispose of, while it also leads to more waste than is required being set to landfill,” she added. Outlining some tips for recycling, Ms McDonogh stated, “Plastics with recycling codes 1, 2 and 5 are fully recyclable and should always be put in the recycling bin. These codes are located at the base …

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Have an Irish turkey dinner

A call has gone out to consumers to support local farmers by buying Irish reared turkeys this Christmas. IFA Poultry chairman Nigel Renaghan said: “Buy an Irish turkey and be sure of what you’re getting for Christmas. Irish turkeys are reared to the highest possible welfare standards and are fully traceable back to farm.” “By buying Irish you will be supporting the hard work put in year-round on family farms throughout the country to produce top quality, sustainable food; you’ll help to support your local economy and to sustain the 300,000 jobs connected to farming and food in Ireland.” The IFA Poultry chairman thanked all retailers who are supporting Irish and providing their customers with an Irish reared turkey this Christmas. Mr Renaghan urged consumers who want to buy Irish and to support Irish farmers to check origin labels or to challenge the butcher or retailer directly about the origin of their meat. He reminded consumers who wished to buy …

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