Tag Archives: clare

THE Clare Champion’s photographer John Kelly has been capturing the life and times of the Banner county for over 30 years. Last year was another successful one for John, adding Local Ireland photographer of the year 2021, to his ever growing catalogue of awards. Here he selects his favourite images from the year just gone by. We look forward with great anticipation to what he produces in 2022.

DISCUSSIONS are underway with a view to installing a filter light for those travelling from the Limerick Road to Old Gaol Road in Ennis, the local authority have confirmed. Councillor Pat Daly highlighted the need for the light at the monthly meeting of the council at a recent meeting of the Ennis Municipal District where he urged the council, “to install a filter right arrow on the traffic lights at the Clare Road, adjacent to the tyre centre, to accommodate traffic coming from the Limerick Road side who presently are finding it very difficult to turn right in the Gaol Road.” Ian Chaplin, Executive Engineer, responded, “The Ennis Municipal District recently installed two hatch boxes at this junction to assist access from Clare Road Tyres and the hatch box at the Captain Macs Cross side of the junction should assist the traffic flow as buses will not be obstructed when turning left out of Old Goal Road. The Ennis MD …

SINCE she was born eight months ago little Imogen Brigdale has lit up the lives of her family, and now she has helped to light up the community of Newmarket-on-Fergus. Residents in Newmarket-on-Fergus have been treated to an illuminating Christmas display this holiday season. The lights were recently switched on by Imogen and her parents Jane O’Leary and Alan Brigdale. The tiny tot has proved an inspirational character having repeatedly defied the odds since her post-natal diagnosis of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). The light display is thanks to a collaboration between the Rise Global Foundation and community development organisation, Obair. Located in the Fairgreen near to the village church, the Christmas tree and light display was unveiled at a fun-filled event earlier this month. David McCourt, who is the founder of Rise and the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for designing, building and operating the new national infrastructure under the National Broadband Plan in partnership with …

HOUSE prices in Clare in the last three months of 2021 were 14% higher than the previous year, latest figures have highlighted. This compares with a rise of 5% seen a year ago. The average price of a home in Clare is now almost €220,000, 84% above its lowest point. National housing prices rose by 7.7% on average during 2021, according to the latest Daft.ie Sales Report. The average price nationwide in the final quarter of 2021 was €290,998, up 0.6% on the third quarter of 2021 and just 21% below the Celtic Tiger peak. While 2020 saw similar rates of inflation across the Irish housing market, significant regional differences emerged during 2021. The smallest increases were in urban areas. In Galway city, prices rose by 1.6% during the year, while in Dublin, prices rose by 3.4%. In Cork city, prices rose by 5.5% while in Limerick and Waterford cities, the increases were 6.4% and 7.5% respectively. But outside the …

WORKS aimed at connecting parts of Ennis with walking trails are set to begin next year the Ennis Municipal District has confirmed. Funding totalling €950,000 has been secured by the council under the government’s Active Travel grant scheme. The plans were detailed at a recent meeting of the Ennis Municipal District where Councillor Johnny Flynn had sought an update on the Connecting and Co-Creating Ennis project which was undertaken in 2020 by the Intelligence Unit (IU) of the School of Architecture at UL. The project was undertaken on the invitation of the Director of Service of the Ennis MD executive Carmel Kirby, in conjunction with the elected members. The councillor outlined that this project looked at Connecting, by re-joining parts of Ennis physically and socially and Co-Creating, getting citizens and visitors actively involved in the development of Ennis. Councillor Flynn described the document as “a very important piece of work”. The students and academics who worked on the project spent …

THE fundraising and water safety awareness efforts of two Ennis business women have seen them recognised with a national award. Danielle Kenneally and Chantell Keane were the recipients of the Water Safety Ireland Community and Social Responsibility award at their national awards ceremony earlier this year. Danielle’s brother Jack was just 15 when he and his friend Shay Moloney lost their lives after getting into difficulty swimming in a disused quarry in 2018. Danielle and her best friend Chantell co-founded home fragrance business Wix and Wax in 2020, and this year they decided to donate a month’s profits from a specially created ‘Daisy snap-bar’ to WSI in memory of Jack. The daisy has a strong significance to the Kenneally family as Jack kept a daisy on the back of his phone, and that’s something that Danielle holds dear. A water safety tips leaflet was included with every fragrance bar sold. A total of €2,500 was raised from the sale of …

CLARE broadcaster Marty Morrissey has thanked the public for their “wonderful love and support” following his mother’s tragic passing earlier this month. Peggy Morrissey lost her life in a car accident at Annagh, Miltown Malbay in the early hours of Tuesday, December 7. Her only son Marty took to social media on Christmas Eve to pay tribute to all of those who have offered him support during what he described as “the most difficult” time of his life. The RTÉ sports commentator wrote, “The last few weeks has been the most difficult in my life as I lost my beautiful Mom so heartbreakingly. But my grief has been comforted by your wonderful love and support. “It’s a particularly hard time for a lot of people especially this year more than most. Life is precious. On Christmas Eve night, can I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers, cards, phonecalls and texts. May I wish you and …

KILNAMONA author Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s debut prose book A Ghost in the Throat has been named among the New York Times Best Books of 2021. The book has featured among the Times’s staff critics choices of the best fiction and nonfiction works of this year. The book, which last year scooped the An Post Book of the Year Award, sees Doireann weave two stories together, with eighteenth-century poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill haunting the life of a contemporary young mother who turns detective. Ní Chonaill composed the great poem “Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire” after her husband was murdered by a powerful British official. The book which includes a translation of the poem, is a hybrid of essay, biography, autofiction and scholarship and a daily accounting of life with four children under the age of six. “The book is all undergrowth, exuberant, tangled passage,” New York Times critic Parul Sehgal  wrote. “The story that uncoils is stranger, more difficult to tell, than those valiant …