Tag Archives: Corofin

A FACELIFT is on the cards for six Clare towns and villages, three of them in the East and the South East of the county. A pot of €7 million is to be shared among 124 areas across the country under the Streetscape Enhancement Initiative. In Clare, the beneficiaries will be Tulla, Scariff, Clonlara, Kilrush, Corofin and Clarecastle, where property and business owners will be invited to apply for funding. The allocation will support a number of activities to brighten the appearance of towns and villages. These include strategic collaboration between property owners to paint buildings or shopfronts in vibrant colours and the commissioning of murals in towns and villages. The funds also enable the upgrade or restoration of historic and traditional shopfronts; as well as the provision of street planting, shrubbery, trees and flowers boxes. Enhancements through the illumination and lighting of architectural features can also be carried out, as well as the installation of canopies and street furniture …

Half a loaf is considerably better than no bread as following the postponement of last year’s secondary adult club competitions, a condensed county league schedule is set to commence this bank holiday Monday. Four of the seven football leagues begin their campaigns on the first day possible of the government’s Covid-19 guidelines, with all divisions in both football and hurling limited to five matches which are based on last year’s fixtures. With no promotion or relegation at stake, the county leagues are primarily intended as a reintroduction to playing action following a minimum eight month absence. However, while clubs will be without their inter-county contingents, there’s still silverware on offer to retain a competitive edge remains intact as following the completion of the group stages, the top team in each division will be crowned champions. Cusack Cup – Division 1 Football League Round 1 Kilmurry Ibrickane v St Joseph’s Miltown at Quilty, Monday, 3.30pm (Referee: C Maguire) It’s a post-lockdown …

COROFIN’S Kenneth O’Halloran was among the winners at the recent Press Photographers Association of Ireland awards. Kenneth took second place in the Reportage category for a series of images of men working in their gardens just after lockdown hit. The Judges report said, “We really loved this picture story, shot in a very direct documentary style, the photographer pounded the pavements of suburbia, hunting lockdown man in his garden managing to connect the visual threads with humour and a touch of the surreal. Wonderful idea and an absolutely delightful set of images.” Speaking about the work, Kenneth said that while he had started off taking pictures of deserted streets, he soon tried to get something a little different. “With Instagram you can see that what you think is a really interesting idea has been photographed by most people. So I was looking for something else, I hit the suburbs and spent three or four weeks walking around the housing estates …

THE story of a Catholic priest who was brutally murdered during the War of Independence has been compiled in a new book by a Kilfenora native with a passion for history. Retired teacher Pat O’Looney, who lives in Loughrea, has painstakingly researched the history of Fr Michael Griffin, a man who himself had strong Clare links. The cleric’s death is one of the most notorious incidents of the dark year of 1920 and send shock waves around the world. Pat’s book A Zealous Priest tells the story of the young junior curate. As the war was reaching its height, Fr Griffin was a junior the parishes of Bushypark and Barna. A known IRA sympathiser, he was just 28 when he was taken from his home in Galway city and murdered by crown forces. “He had a number of Clare connections, though he was born in Ballinasloe,” explained Pat. “His grandfather was from Corofin and when Fr Griffin was ordained, his …

PLANS to install a pedestrian crossing in the village of Corofin have made progress, after a motion was tabled by Councillor Joe Killeen at this month’s meeting of the West Clare Municipal District. Calling for a new crossing, the Fianna Fáil members said it would be in the interests of the safety of all road users locally. “What we have is a cluster of facilities together – the GAA pitch and the playground – at the southern part of the village,” he explained. “Then, we have the medical centre just across the road. At the moment, we’re trying to encourage people to park in the car parking spaces adjacent to the GAA pitch and at the entrance to the play area. We’ve got Laghtagoona which has 100 houses and lots of the children from there come as part as the pitch and playground and we’re looking for a pedestrian crossing to try and facilitate those using the facility. It would …

COROFIN-based artists and book binder, Éilís Murphy continues to fly the flag for an age-old and fascinating craft, with her latest handcrafted book Words about Words. The beautifully handmade, limited-edition work of art is a kind of illustrated dictionary of rare words, many of which have fallen out of use. It explores the language of lexicography, using 26 collages to bring to life esoteric terms, from ‘abecedarian’ to ‘zeugma’. “I love resurrecting obscure words, giving them a new life through illustration,” Éilís said, describing Words about Words as “an ABC picture book for adults”. Earlier this year, Éilís’s expertise and creativity were rewarded with a €10,000 RDS Craft Awards bursary. She was one of five emerging Irish craftspeople awarded a bursary for the development of their craft. “Each book is unique by virtue of hand-painted paste paper, which gives the cover the chalky texture of a painted canvas. This paper decoration technique has been used by bookbinders since the middle …

  BOOKBINDING is an intriguing age-old craft, which is being nurtured by artist Éilís Murphy at her Corofin studio. Her expertise and creativity have recently been rewarded with a €10,000 RDS Craft Awards bursary. Éilís was one of five emerging Irish craftspeople awarded a bursary for the development for their burgeoning craft and business skills under the programme. A judging panel of five craft and design professionals chaired by Irish artist, Róisín de Buitléar, shortlisted 12 candidates to interview in the RDS. Physical examples of their work were shown to the panel and five winners were selected following two days of discussions. In addition to the €10,000 bursary, the 2020 RDS Craft Awards winners are provided with a free stand at Gifted – The Contemporary Craft & Design Fair held in the RDS in December. To be eligible to apply for the craft awards, emerging craft makers must have won a Design & Crafts Council Ireland, Future Makers Award or …

AFTER over a month of waiting to get off cruise ship Ruby Princess in Sydney, Corofin musician Killian Shannon was allowed to disembark on Tuesday, and he is expected home in the coming days. Almost 2,700 passengers were allowed leave the ship in March, some of them quite ill, and the ship has been identified as one of the biggest sources of infection in Australia. More than 20 people who had been on board it have now perished due to Covid-19. The ship arrived into Sydney on March 19, and Killian was one of the crew members who tested positive for the disease while on board. He spent weeks in strict quarantine on the ship, and when he finally managed to get back on dry land on Tuesday, he was elated. “Oh my God! Absolutely over the moon! It all happened very, very quickly, we were only told very late on to keep it away from the media. If it …