Tag Archives: clare county council

 By Peter O’Connell KILRUSH town councillor Ian Lynch is to switch his political allegiance from Fine Gael and stand in the West Clare area as an Independent candidate in the May election. He will join the battle for votes in the West Clare capital with his town council party colleague Marian McMahon Jones, who was added to the Fine Gael ticket after the November  convention. Sitting county councillors Gabriel Keating and Oliver Garry were selected at the Fine Gael convention to represent the party in the expanded west Clare constituency. Currently Kilrush is without a representative on Clare County Council for the first time in the local authority’s history. Councillor Lynch was elected to Kilrush Town Council, on the first count, in 2009 and says that he regrets not running for the county council five years ago. “Looking back this may have been a mistake because since the local elections in 2009 Kilrush town and the greater hinterland have been …

STORM and flooding expected this weekend could be “as extreme” as earlier this month, a senior Clare County Council engineer warned on Friday. Clare  County Council issued a flood and storm warning on Thursday for the entire county in advance of severe weather conditions that are expected over the next few days. On Friday afternoon Tom Tiernan, senior engineer, transportation, with Clare County Counil released a statement reminding people that an Orange Met Eireann weather alert pertains at present in respect of the county until Saturday night, February 1 and warning against unnecessary travel. “Storm and flooding activity is likely to be most severe in coastal areas including the Shannon Estuary where the high Spring tide of early Saturday morning will coincide with a substantial tidal surge and severe on-shore Westerly and South Westerly winds – conditions then will potentially be as extreme as they were during the coastal storms of early January,” Mr Tiernan stated. “In addition, this mornings …

CLARE  County Council has joined forces with three other local authorities to commemorate the  1000th  anniversary of Brian Boru’s death with an All-Ireland initiative. Students from St  Anne’s Community College in Killaloe performed The Kincora Call, a New  Zealand style Haka. with a distinctive Irish and Brian Ború slant at the official national launch. The audience included Arts Minister for Arts, Jimmy Deenihan, Dublin Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn, Lord Inchiquin, Conor O’Brien,who is a direct descendant of Boru. Coordinated by Clare County Council, the All- Ireland initiative involves strong co-operation between Clare, Dublin, Tipperary County Council and the Armagh City & District Council. It features a series of commemorations in the four main locations with connections to the life and High Kingship of Ireland’s best known historical figure; Killaloe, which was the seat of Brian Boru’s Kingship of Ireland from 1001 to 1014 AD, Clontarf where he was killed, Cashel, the location of his crowning as high king and Armagh, …

CLARE County Council has slipped from third worst to the bottom of the list in a league table of allocations under the Local Government Fund (LGF). Councillors criticised the reduction in national funding under the LGF at the authority’s budget estimates meeting on Wednesday. Mayor of Clare Joe Arkins revealed he contacted a representative of Environment Minister Phil Hogan to complain about the reduction in the LGF and Clare’s place on the bottom of the list. Councillor Arkins said he was informed that Clare’s LGF allocation had to be considered in the context of the expenditure by Irish Water and other local government payments. Councillor Tom McNamara noted that Clare had a compliance rate of about 75% for the Household Charge and over 90% for the Property Tax and yet it found itself bottom of the list in terms of LGF. Councillor Richard Nagle said it looked as if the council was going back to the bad old days of …

CLARE County Council took precautionary road safety measures on Sunday night when main roads and many secondary roads were gritted, as wet conditions followed by a drop in temperature,  were expected to lead to icy roads in the morning. With mixed weather conditions forecast for the coming days, motorists have been advised to exercise caution and to slow down. A number of accidents last week were attributed to flashes of sleet on roads. Ten incidents occurred on one stretch of the M8 motorway between Crusheen and Gort on Thursday last. Earlier, Met Éireann  issued a new weather warning, warning of wind gusts that could reach up to 130 km/h. The Status Orange Wind Warning was issued on an all-Ireland basis. It stated: “Preliminary Warning : A vigorous Atlantic storm depression is forecast to pass just to the northwest of Ireland overnight on Monday. “The exact track is still not certain, but it is likely to bring some severe winds in …

CLARE County Council has written to Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Prendeville on six occasions in an effort to elicit an apology for a comment passed to a member of their staff at a traffic management meeting in Kilrush in February. However, Councillor Prendeville insists that he did apologise in February and claims his apology is written into the minutes of that meeting. While he described the apology as “contrite and sincere”, Councillor Prendeville claims he was contacted six weeks later and told that the apology wasn’t sufficient. The comment was made during a debate on the placement of double yellow lines on both sides of the Back Road, outside St Senan’s National School in Kilrush. Councillor Prendeville opposed this development, which has led to parents having to park illegally when dropping and collecting their children from school. RIMS meetings are believed to be unique to Kilrush Town Council. They are held in camera, deal with traffic management issues in Kilrush …

CLARE County Council is to commence interim remedial works at the Tradaree Point wastewater treatment plant in Shannon this weekend. The desludging of the plant is aimed at reducing sewage-related odours emanating from the facility. The works will continue next week and into the early weeks of 2014. “Clare County Council wishes to alert residents, on a precautionary basis, that odours may be generated during the desludging operation because of the nature of the operation itself,” explained a Council spokesperson. “Tanks will have to be drained down in sequence, and this may expose solid materials gathered on the floors of the tanks which may be a source of odour while they are being removed. However, even though the operation may cause odours in itself, the overall purpose of the operation is to alleviate odours in the longer term.” “The Council has also secured aeration equipment to blow additional air into the tanks once they are desludged and refilled in sequence. …

WITH the centenary of the 1916 Rising looming, Clare County Council has been urged to take Hastings Cottage under its remit as part of a project linked to Ireland’s commemorations of the Rising and the War of Independence. Hastings Cottage is one of the most historic buildings in Shannon, having been shown on the 1840 Ordnance Survey Map of the area. However, its construction may have been long before that pre-famine date. During the War of Independence Brigadier General Lucas, a senior British officer, was taken captive and held there. One of those guarding him was Major General Michael Brennan, who subsequently led the East Clare Brigade of the IRA. Last year Dúchas na Sionna held an open day at the building, which was attended by descendants of the General. Speaking at last week’s meeting Councillor Duff acknowledged his own involvement with Dúchas na Sionna and said that the heritage group wouldn’t be able to take responsibility for it without …