Tag Archives: Clare Roots Society

THERE will be an opportunity to go back to your roots in The Old Ground Hotel next week. The Clare Roots Society’s next meeting, on Thursday, September 21 at 8pm, will focus on tracing ancestors and beginning family histories. According to John Bradley of the society, “The desire to delve into the history of your family can be triggered by various events, a marriage and the joining of two families, a new baby bringing a new generation and new grandparents, retirement and the need to fill your leisure time or the more challenging discoveries. “Whatever triggered an interest in the subject, it is always wise to start with the known facts and verify these by obtaining the proof in the civil or church records. “Everyone starting their family history these days instantly turns to the internet. It is essential, however, that a new researcher knows where to look. “Maybe you have encountered a barrier in your genealogy research and you …

The strength of The Clare Champion’s roots in the very fabric of the county’s history was emphasised at an event celebrating the completion of an innovative project. The Clare Roots Society has been working in conjunction with The Champion, collecting and recording biographical notices for the years 1903 to 1934. As a result of the hard work of dedicated volunteers, the project is now complete, resulting in about 7,000 biographical notices being collated. The information has been donated to Clare Library and the online version is now live on the library’s website. To celebrate the completion of the project, a function was held recently at The Old Ground Hotel. Editor of The Clare Champion, Austin Hobbs told those gathered that the newspaper was delighted to be involved with the project. He said the newspaper has played an important part in people’s lives over the years in Clare. “We have seen evidence of this in the amount of letters, and these days …

A FINAL appeal for memories of the Turnpike has been made by Flan Hehir from McNamara Park, who has been working in recent months on compiling a new book exploring the history of the area. Flan’s new publication will explore the history of the old and new Turnpike area. The book is being produced in conjunction with Clare Roots Society. Last year, the partnership, in conjunction with the residents of McNamara Park, produced a booklet to mark the 50th anniversary of the first replacement houses to the Old Turnpike. Flan has been carrying out research over the last 18 months, travelling the town and country, collecting memories and photographs of the houses and tales of former residents. While his extensive research has uncovered many interesting stories, he is urging anyone with any information they feel could be useful in the book to contact him. “The current appeal is for contributions of photographs, documents, invoices and memorabilia of all kinds associated …

AN intriguing project, based on information gleaned from the pages of The Clare Champion, will look at life and death in County Clare in the early part of the 20th century. The Biographical Index of The Clare Champion 1903-1934 project is a collaboration between the Clare Roots Society and Clare County Library. Clare Roots Society is looking for volunteers to assist in the collection and recording of biographical notices published in The Champion for the years 1903 to 1934. This information will create a searchable index to be made available on the Clare Library website for public access when completed. A similar project was undertaken some years ago for Clare Champion issues published for years 1935 to 1985 and the index is available online. The project will complete the index for all Clare Champion publication years, 1903-1985. The editions of the newspaper can be on microfilm spool, microfiche and hardcopy, located in the Local Studies Centre, Ennis, where the review …

LOCAL historian, Cora (Hahessy) McNulty is working on a history of St Michael’s Villas, in association with the Clare Roots Society. The book will be launched on June 18 next. Cora is putting out an appeal for the names of the children in the photograph above and is seeking two photographs, which must be included in the book. One is a photograph of the St Michael’s Grotto Committee. This committee was formed in 1958 to raise funds for the construction for the iconic grotto in St Michael’s. A photograph appeared in The Clare Champion of the blessing of the grotto in March 1960. Cora has a very poor copy of this photograph and is confident that someone out there has an original. The committee members were as follows: PJ McGarry (chairman); P Considine (designer); M Ryan; M Coleman; J Lynch; P Sheehan; J McGuane; M Kinnane; T Coffey; M Culligan and R O’Brien. The second photograph being sought is of …

IN 1860, over 1,200 volunteers from Ireland travelled to Italy to fight for the Papal States in the Papal Wars. An appeal was made throughout the country for funds to support the volunteers. Twenty-three Catholic parishes from Clare published lists of subscribers in newspapers of the day and, now, members of Clare Roots Society have undertaken to transcribe the names of these subscribers, resulting in a database of over 4,000 names. This week, members of Clare Roots Society handed over the Papal Army database to county librarian, Helen Walsh. In recent times, staff at the library’s Local Studies Centre came across extensive lists of subscribers names published in The Clare Journal, the local newspaper of the day. The subscriptions were in response to an appeal for funds to support the Irish volunteers to the Papal Army in the summer of 1860. Peter Beirne, Local Studies Centre librarian, immediately saw the value of these lists to genealogy researchers tracing Clare families. …

THE history behind one of the oldest areas in Ennis has been explored in the newest booklet to be launched by the Clare Roots Society. On Thursday, April 3 at 7pm at the Junction in Cloughleigh Mayor of Ennis, Councillor Mary Coote Ryan, will launch Clare Roots Society latest booklet on Cloughleigh. The book entitled Old Cloughleigh Road has been edited by Kathleen Barry and Nora Shanahan and gives the historical background to the area. The booklet shows that the original 33 Cloughleigh houses consisted of a mixture of thatched and galvanized roofs with two rooms and two windows and were subject to annual flooding. These were replaced in the mid 1950s with a new scheme of 24 houses costing £37,000 to construct, consisting of three bedrooms, with two bedrooms having fireplaces and a separate front sitting room, which had the advantage that it could be used as an additional bedroom for the larger families. The major advantage of these …

AS the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War approaches, a booklet commemorating those with Clare roots who lost their lives in the Great War has been created. The booklet, ‘The Great War 1914-1918 – The Clare War Dead WWI’ will be officially launched at the Ennis Book Club Festival. And it is hoped that the booklet will raise awareness, and assist plans, for the establishment of a memorial in the Friars Walk area of Ennis honouring Clare’s war dead. The publication, prepared by Ger Browne in association with the Clare Roots Society is now available but will be officially be launched during the Ennis Book Club Festival on the Saturday, March 9 at 2.30pm in St Columba’s Church. John Bradley of Clare Roots Society explained, “This year marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and with it comes four years of commemorations. The official commemorations will begin in Sarajevo with a …