Tag Archives: cloughleigh

THE tragic loss of a number of people in the Cloughleigh area of Ennis this year has been the inspiration for the holding of a special concert of remembrance next month. Acclaimed singer / songwriter Kieran Goss will be the headline act for the concert in Cloughleigh Community Centre on December 6 which will also feature his wife Annie Kinsella, Damien Gormley, Siobhan Peoples and band The Citizens. The event, billed as a Concert of Remembrance and Hope has been organised by Fr Ger Fitzgerald along with a group of locals who knew many of those who have passed away. Proceeds from the event will be used to create a memorial to be erected outside Cloughleigh church. Fr Ger explained, “We have experienced in the last year or so a lot of people, young people in particular, that have passed away for one reason or another. We wanted to come up with something to honour their memory, to honour the …

AN Ennis woman has become the newest face of RTÉ TV news. First-time television presenter Zainab Boladale is the latest addition to the news2day team. Following a call-out to media and journalism graduates across the country, and a comprehensive audition process, Zainab was chosen to join the team and began broadcasting live this week on RTÉ Two and RTÉ News Now. News2day is RTÉ’s news service designed specifically for children, featuring Irish and international news of interest to a young audience. Zainab studied journalism in Dublin City University (DCU) and has previously worked as a digital news reporter. In 2017, she was named Journalist of the Year at the DCU Hybrid Awards and was nominated in the same category in the Union of Students in Ireland Achievement Awards. Zainab was born in Lagos, Nigeria but has lived in Ennis since she was four-years-old. The 20-year-old went to primary school in Scoil Chríost Rí, Cloughleigh and spent the first three years …

ENNIS Tidy Towns has gone ‘wild’ about biodiversity. The local organisation launched its Wild About Ennis Biodiversity Plan for 2017- 2019 last Friday in the Gordon Drive Community Garden. Mayor of Ennis Ann Norton officially launched the plan with members of the local community in Cloughleigh, Chamber CE Scheme, who manage the Garden, Department of Social Protection, Ennis Chamber, Clare County Council and students from Cloughleigh Primary School in attendance. This community-led plan was developed with the support of local individuals and community groups through online questionnaires and two dedicated workshops. Ennis Tidy Towns also invited groups from throughout the county to assist with the development of the plan, thereby ensuring many of the ideas and skills learned during the process were distributed around the county. “We look forward to implementing this ambitious plan with the help of the local community as well as local stakeholders, including Clare County Council, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Inland Fisheries Ireland.It also …

An Ennis man, who carried out unprovoked attack on a woman in her home, has been sentenced to two years in in prison following a finding by the Court of Appeal that his wholly suspended three year sentence was“unduly lenient”. Alan Kilmartin (35), of Davitt Terrace, Cloughleigh, pleaded guilty at Ennis Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm to a woman at an estate on the Lahinch Road, Ennis on March 2 2012. He was given a wholly suspended three year prison sentence, suspended for five years on conditions, by Judge Carroll Moran on November 25 2013. The Director of Public Prosecutions successfully argued in the Court of Appeal last month that Kilmartin’s sentence was unduly lenient. President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Seán Ryan said on Monday that there were undoubtedly mitigating features in favour of Kilmartin but they did not “obliterate the seriousness of the crimes”, their severity and their impact on the vicitm. Mr Justice Ryan …

A Special Branch at  Ennis Garda Station are going back to grass roots and conducting house-to-house enquiries as they search for clues following the theft of a tree from a private garden in Ennis. It seems that gardaí will find it difficult to see the wood from the trees in their search, as speculation is that the stolen item may have been replanted. The Norwegian Maple tree was stolen from a garden at Pearse Avenue in Cloughleigh between 8pm on Tuesday, August 19 and 12.30pm on Wednesday, August 20. The tree stood at approximate eight to ten feet tall and had a trunk width of between four to eight inches. Superintendent Derek Smart of Ennis Garda Station described the tree as “sizable”. “It appears that the tree was just uprooted and I’d say it wasn’t long purchased. It was an unusual tree. We are asking if someone was offered this to contact us. We have carried out house-to-house enquiries and …

ENNIS has been invaded by Vikings. However, this time it is not gold these Vikings were after but knowledge of how to set up Family Learning classes. 24 Norwegians visited Clare Family Learning Project work last week with their ultimate goal to set up Family Learning programmes in their region in Norway similar to what is being done locally in Clare. While here, the group gained valuable ideas through visiting classes in action, meeting parents who have already attended classes, and meeting family learning tutors and the partners that Clare Family Learning Project work with. The visitors from Nedre Eiker Municipality in Norway included 11 adult education teachers, two primary school principals, three kindergarten teachers, the head of all schools and kindergartens in the region, a volunteer co-ordinator, a cultural leader, a pedagogical leader and others interested in the notion of family learning. Principal of the Adult Learning Centre in Nedre Eiker Elizabeth Engeset visited the Clare Family Learning Project …

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 …

PEOPLE in Ennis will be putting their best foot forward this weekend in a bid to raise funds for the Burren Chernobyl Project. A fun run/walk will be held on this Saturday, starting at 11am at The Junction in Cloughleigh. The event is being organised as three local creche workers prepare to head to Belarus this August to volunteer at an orphanage. Hazel O’Connor, Bridget Punch and Lisa Cullinan, who work at the Lifford Childcare Centre, will volunteer at the Gorodishche orphanage, joining others from the Burren Chernobyl Project. And in order to raise funds for the worthy cause, the fun run / walk has been organised with hopes that hundreds of people will take part. With a choice of two routes, five kilometres and ten kilometres, the event is something that anybody can take part in. And there will also be some special guests making an appearance. “We will have Clare goalie Pa Kelly signing jerseys and also Mickey …