Tag Archives: clare champion

SIXTH year student, Odhran Cunningham has been awarded the Kilrush Community School Sports Scholarship Award for 2022. Ramona McCarthy, Deputy Principal, Kilrush Community School praised the student saying, “Odhran is a most worthy winner. During his time in KCS, Odhran displayed excellent leadership qualities and no little amount of skill as he represented the school with distinction.” Odhran has represented his club, Kilrush-Killimer, and Clare. He played wing back for the Clare U20 Football team in their recent Munster Championship run, as well as their successful Liam O’Connor Cup campaign earlier on this year. He was selected as Clare FM’s Man of the Match in their final outing against Kerry last month. This annual award is sponsored by Saint Gobain. “Odhran is an excellent role model for our students and we wish him every success in his future sporting and academic endeavours,” the deputy principal concluded.

CLARE students have proven themselves to be up to scratch after getting top awards in the finals of a national competition. The National Scratch Coding Competition was held at the University of Limerick, bringing together the top scoring teams from all over the country. School students aged six and up across five age categories were invited to demonstrate their Scratch projects to the judges. Students from Feakle National School and Ennis Coder Dojo took home some of the top prizes at this year’s Scratch Finals. Jack Hogan from Feakle National School received the award for Junior infants to 1st Class Category for his project ‘March JH’. Adiel Mickus, Ennis Coder Dojo received the 2nd Class to 4th Class Category award for his project ‘Two Player Maze Game’. This year saw over 160 entries nationwide to the competition. According to Clare McInerney, Lero’s EPE Programme Manager, “The standard for this year’s competition has been incredibly high, it was a very difficult …

AN Ennis councillor is seeking to court support for the provision of basketball facilities at Lee’s Road, John O’Sullivan Park saying it would be an “ideal location” for people to enjoy the sport. A feasibility study is to be carried out by the Ennis Municipal District to “scope out the possibility”, however the local authority have cautioned they do not have the funding to provide a basketball court at the moment. Councillor Mary Howard, speaking at a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District, stated she receives requests regularly “from both young people and not so young that we provide a basketball court at Lee’s Road John O’Sullivan Park.” She urged the council to “seriously” consider the request. Tim Forde, Head of Sports & Recreation with the council, confirmed that they have also received requests for a basketball court. “Clare County Council Sports & Recreation are not in a position presently to provide a Basketball Court in Active Ennis John O’Sullivan’ …

ST Flannan’s students this week jetted off to the States where they will present designs for a space settlement at the International Space Development Conference (ISDC). The Ennis students received the VIP treatment at Shannon Airport, which is sponsoring their flight to Washington DC after the group won the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest to design an inhabitable settlement in space. As previously reported in The Clare Champion, the “Mag Mell” settlement was designed by fifth year physics students, Naem Haq, Adam Downes, Cian Pyne, Jack O’Connor and Garabhan Monahan. Speaking from Shannon Airport ahead of their flight to Washington, their physics teacher John Conneely said, “This is a wonderful opportunity. We are so proud of our students for winning the grand prize out of 17,000 students from 22 countries.  We are incredibly grateful to Shannon Airport for the support. “It is quite fitting that we are travelling from Shannon to the International Space Development Conference. Our students were thrilled to …

AN Ennis man who recently returned from a humanitarian mission helping Ukrainians flee the war with Russia is this week embarking on a fundraising mission a little closer to home. This Saturday John Casey, founder of the Tesla Owners Group in Ireland and fellow electric vehicle enthusiast ex international rugby player Peter Bracken, will be setting off on a mammoth trip around Clare to raise funds for the Banner GAA. They will visit every GAA club in the county on their journey of more than 550km. John explains that as well as raising money for capital development at the club the trip will also help challenge the perception that electric vehicles cannot travel long ranges. “There are 52 GAA clubs in County Clare and the distance to be covered is approximately 550km starting and finishing at the Banner GAA grounds in Ennis. We will be travelling to the four corners of the county from Naomh Eoin in the West to …

CLARE parents of children with Cystic Fibrosis have told of their fears for their childrens’ future if they cannot access a “miracle” drug at the centre of a dispute between the Health Service Executive and a pharmaceutical company. Cystic Fibrosis Ireland estimate that around 140 children aged six-years-old to 11-years-old are already are on the drug Kaftrio, but 35 children with a particular genotype are not as they are outside the 10-year Portfolio Agreement that was signed by the HSE and Vertex in 2017. Emma Fitzpatrick from Sixmilebridge is mother to eight-year-old James and says the drug would mean “everything” to their family, improving her son’s quality of life. She was “devastated” when she received a call from James’ consultant to say that he would not be getting the drug. “Literally you have your fingertips on this miracle – and it is a miracle to us. It is not a cure, but it’s the nearest we will ever get to …

AN exploration of the Gaelic songs of County Clare has unearthed 130 songs, with that figure continuing to grow. The outcome of the project, carried out by actor, writer and director Diarmuid de Faoite titled Dúchas is Dóchas (Heritage and Hope), will be launched by the Clare Arts Office and The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) this Saturday in Cultúrlann Sweeney, Kilkee. The work was done as part of the third Duala: Creator-in-Residence Scheme. “It wasn’t today nor yesterday that the people of County Clare fell in love with music and the county has a deserved reputation in the field of traditional music,” said de Faoite. “Despite this reputation, however, songs in Irish are rarely heard and even rarer still are songs in Irish from the county, save the ubiquitous ‘Beidh Aonach Amárach’,” he noted. “Though the music has been preserved and enriched, our voice was lost quite suddenly and traumatically with the rapid loss of language” he added, posing …

PRESIDENT of Ireland Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina will visit Ennis this Saturday where they will pay tribute to all those behind the county capital’s success in being named Ireland’s Tidiest Town in 2021. The couple will attend a ceremony at President Higgins’ former secondary school of St Flannan’s College and during the visit he will unveil a plaque marking Ennis’ win in the national competition. Ennis Tidy Towns’ chairman Cormac McCarthy tells us that the local committee are “over the moon” to be hosting the president and his wife. He reveals that the ceremony will be particularly focused on the important role that the local community had in securing the win for Ennis. “It’s going to be a wonderful event and we have had great support in the organisation from St Flannan’s College, where the president went to secondary school, as well as getting logistical support from the Ennis Municipal District which is very appreciated.” Ennis Tidy …