Tag Archives: clare county council

CLARE GAA has been successful in its goal of turning the Cloister car park in Ennis’ town centre into a permanent parking facility. Clare County Council has given the green light to an application for planning permission to a change of use of the site on Lower Abbey Street. Prior to this the location had permission to provide spaces for vehicles only before and after GAA matches and authorised events at Cusack Park. The granting of planning permission paves the way for the site to be used as a commercial car park for both long term and short term parking for members of the public. Local authority planners in assessing the application acknowledged the development of car parking “would be welcome” in the area, helping free up spaces in other parts of the town centre. The site lies within the Ennis town centre Architectural Conservation area and within the immediate vicinity of a number of protected structures including Ennis Friary …

WITH everything from a blissful barbecue in the Burren, to seaweed tastings by the coast, the return of the Clare Food & Drink Fleadh provides an ideal showcase for all that is good about the food and drink scene in The Banner county. County Clare is well renowned as one of the best in Ireland when it comes to producing high-quality artisan food and drink, sparking the establishment of the Clare Food & Drink Fleadh in 2019. This year’s event from July 15 to 17 will feature a wide variety of events catering for foodies and drinks connoisseurs of all tastes. Clare Food & Drink Fleadh co-ordinator Margaret O’Brien said, “It’s great to be back after the disruption of recent years. “We chose July 15 to 17 as our festival dates for 2022 to complement Skoda Ring of Clare cycle event, which is set to attract thousands of participants, their partners and families to Clare.” Clare Food & Drink Festival …

THE lack of motorway service stations is forcing people to turn the side of Clare’s stretch of the M18 into a public toilet, a local authority member has asserted.  Offering to produce video evidence of the practice of public urination along the M18 and N18, Councillor PJ Ryan appealed to the Council to ask Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and the Transport Minister to install public services on the Clare stretch of the motorway. “It has been brought to may notice that quite a lot of vehicles cars on N18/M18 are using side of motorway when they need to go to the toilet,” he said. “Making a public toilet out the motorway is a disgrace It is mostly on the south-bound side that there is the problem. The north-bound stretch has services at Birdhill. Clare County Council needs to do something.” Seconding the motion, Councillor Pat McMahon agreed that the Tipperary stretch of the motorway has better services. “In Tipperary, there …

A PROPOSAL to develop housing in Lahinch has been refused planning permission due to inadequate sewage treatment. The local authority stated the development would be “premature” due to a deficiency in sewerage facilities locally and “result in a risk of pollution and would be prejudicial to public health”. John Talty Construction Ltd had applied to Clare County Council for planning permission to construct a development of eight houses, comprising six detached and two semi-detached homes. The proposal included all associated site development works, wastewater pre-treatment and connections to public services at Cill Stuifin, School Road, Attycristora, Lahinch. However in refusing permission Clare County Council stated the proposal would be “premature by reference to the existing deficiency in the provision of sewerage facilities in Lahinch and the period within which this constraint may reasonably be expected to cease”. The planning authority’s decision continued, “It is further considered that the proposed development of eight houses to be served by means of an …

A 1947 DODGE car once owned by Eamon de Valera has been moved from its display building in Harmony Row to a new home in the newly refurbished exhibition area at Clare Museum. The car, which was used by Eamon de Valera during his years as President of Ireland, was often to be seen on the roads of Clare in the 1960s and is fondly remembered by the Clare public. It was manufactured in Detroit, Michigan, US, in 1947 and was originally the property of President Sean T O’Kelly. Although de Valera continued to use a Rolls Royce for State occasions while President of Ireland, he purchased the Dodge from Sean T O’Kelly, the outgoing President, and had it resprayed from its original maroon to black for his personal use in the late 1950s. The black Dodge would go on to be a familiar sight in Clare. Many older Clare people associate the vehicle with the annual Clare Agricultural Show …

CONSTRUCTION has commenced on the Clarecastle Sewerage Scheme, Irish Water have confirmed. The new sewerage infrastructure to be constructed as part of this scheme aims to eliminate the discharge of raw sewage into the River Fergus and Shannon Estuary. Irish Water, working in partnership with Clare County Council, are commencing with the installation of new below-ground infrastructure at the site of the existing Quay Road Pump Station and construction of a new rising main pipeline along Quay Road, Barrack Street and the Ennis Road that will transfer sewage from Quay Road Pumping Station for treatment at the existing Clareabbey Wastewater Treatment Plant. Irish Water aim to have the project completed by mid-2023. Once operational, this infrastructure will ensure compliance with wastewater discharge regulations. It will also improve water quality in River Fergus and Shannon Estuary and protect recreational water whilst protecting the integrity of the local marine environment. Speaking about the project, Seamus Glynn, Infrastructure Delivery Regional Lead with Irish …

TENSIONS between campaigners and political representatives have ratcheted up significantly this week, as the Oireachtas moves to finalise the Bill to underpin a new grant for those with defective blocks.  On Tuesday, Clare’s government TDs, Deputies Cathal Crowe and Joe Carey, voted in favour a proposal to allow just two hours to finalise the draft law. The move has angered local campaigners who had sought 80 amendments. Campaigners themselves, meanwhile, came in for criticism from some members of the local authority. The Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG) along with campaigners in Limerick, Mayo, Sligo and Donegal, challenged councillors to declare their support for the amendments. A poster was then circulated on social media with an X through the faces of those who had not responded by the deadline.  Councillor Gerry Flynn, one of two Clare councillors who didn’t respond, described the approach as “totally out of order”. “We are parish pump, we don’t sit at the Cabinet table,” he said. …

A FORMER Bus Eireann inspector from Killaloe has driven to the top of Clare County Council. Councillor Tony O’Brien was elected unopposed as Clare’s next first citizen without a vote as part of the power-sharing arrangement that was first brokered in 2004 at the annual general meeting in Ennis on Friday. The former Smith O’Brien GAA club secretary replaced Councillor PJ Ryan, who was lauded for being a great ambassador for the county over the past year. Councillor O’Brien was proposed by his Fianna Fáil colleague, Councillor Pat Hayes and seconded by Joe Cooney, Fine Gael, while Councillor Gerry Flynn, Independent also expressed his support. Councillor Hayes said his close friend Councillor O’Brien’s years working as a union official for the National Bus and Rail Union (NBRU) has left him very grounded in reality of how things worked. Since his retirement from Bus Eireann, the new first citizen is challenging planning, housing and budgets in the council, Councillor Hayes said. …