Tag Archives: Doonbeg

CLARE gardaí have enlisted the services of an oceanographer as part of a complex investigation into the alleged dumping of 17 carcasses at the base of the Baltard Cliffs near Doonbeg. Chief Superintendent John Kerin confirmed the oceanographer was hired in an effort to establish whether or not the animals, which were discovered in April 2014 were washed in from the Atlantic Ocean. Superintendent Kerin confirmed a substantial two-volume file on one of the most complex cases in West Clare in recent times had been lodged with the DPP since December. It is understood that a decision considering a direction in this case will be made in the near future. An investigation is continuing involving the gardaí, the Department of Agriculture, Clare County Council and the ISPCA. The expertise of the Department of Agriculture, concerning DNA examination of the dead animals, has been called on to establish if they matched any herd number in the department’s official records. Up to …

ROUND two of The Clare Champion-sponsored Cusack Cup will take place on Monday at four venues, with all games throwing in at 2pm. In Doonaha, O’Curry’s will host Kilmurry-Ibrickane, who are on the trail of their fifth successive title. O’Curry’s were beaten by Clondegad in their opening game, while Kilmurry defeated Lissycasey by a point. Home advantage will help O’Curry’s but Kilmurry will still be favourites to pick up their second win of the campaign. In Lissycasey, the home club host neighbours Clondegad. Lissycasey are under a bit more pressure to get a result, given that they lost their opening game, albeit very narrowly. Clondegad are already on two points and another win would put them in a good position to push for a place in the semi-final at least. While this is a tricky one to call, Clondegad will start as marginal favourites in this all-parish derby. Elsewhere, Doonbeg host Miltown, who drew their opening game with Cooraclare. Doonbeg …

Former Ennis Chamber CEO, Rita McInerney has confirmed her intention to seek a place on the Clare Fianna Fáil ticket to contest the next general election. Ms McInerney, who took a one-year sabbatical from her Ennis Chamber post to complete a masters in politics at University of Limerick, is looking forward to seeking the support of cumman members ahead of the Fianna Fáil Dáil Convention in Clare. The Doonbeg shop owner is facing stiff opposition from a number of candidates, after a Clare Champion survey revealed eight out of the 12 local Fianna Fáil county councillors expressed a preference for running three candidates at the next election. It is expected that Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, and the party’s national constituency committee will select Clare as one of the battlegrounds for a female candidate, in an effort to meet the national 30% gender quota requirement. Fianna Fáil Deputy Timmy Dooley said he will be putting his name forward for re-election …

Clare ICA is to spearhead a countywide survey to determine the scale of population movement in parishes. At a meeting in Doonbeg last week, which was organised to examine the role of rural women in the West Clare community, Clare ICA PRO, Mary Neylon said a count she carried out in June found that 92% of married women in Kilmurry McMahon came from outside that part of the parish. Ms Neylon was one of the speakers at the West Clare Family Resource Centre-organised meeting, which heard from several people on the challenges facing women in the county. The meeting heard that, while these figures pertained to one community of 165 households, it is likely that other parishes in West Clare would have comparable figures. In 19% of cases, both spouses had settled in the community, having moved from elsewhere. Ms Neylon feels if a bigger count or survey was carried out in Clare, the findings could be revealing. “I think …

NEXT Wednesday evening, Doonbeg community hall will host an evening to mark International Day of Rural Women. It will be the first time the day has been formally marked in Clare. The West Clare Family Resource Centre in Kilrush, who are organising the event, has noticed that, despite policies and strategies being produced to improve rural life, there is very little recognition of the contribution of women to rural Ireland. Esther O’Rourke, who lives with her husband Damien and their two daughters, near Cree village, will be one of the speakers next week. From Irvine in Scotland, Esther has lived in Cree for six and a half years. Similar to many married women who move to rural Ireland, she has found that she has had to work hard to adjust and make friends. Her husband is from Ennis and although he has cousins in Cooraclare and Kilrush, the couple didn’t have a network to fall back on when they moved. …

This year’s Doonbeg International Jazz Festival will be running in the village from May 30 to June 2. Festival programmer, Philippa Siegrist, said there are several popular groups playing over the weekend, which should help draw a very large crowd to the West Clare village. “It’s our 15th year, which is brilliant, it’s amazing. This year, we have a band coming from Holland, called The Busquitos (pictured right), and they’re very good. We have a band from Scotland, called Jazz Main. They’re coming back, due to popular demand. The Paul O’Driscoll trio from Dublin are coming; we have Ace Minski. I play in a band called Skazz myself, who should be top of the bill! “We have a children’s fun day on the Saturday and that will be free. We’d expect to have three, maybe four thousand people over the weekend. It’s great,” she said. Philippa said the organisers try and make sure the music is accessible to everyone. “We …

By Peter O’Connell JOHN Treacy likens what happened in West Clare 426 years ago to two fully-loaded 747s crashing, within hours of each other. On Friday, September 20, 1588, the San Marcos and the San Esteban went down off Mutton Island (Quilty) and the White Strand (Doonbeg) respectively. In the region of 780 people were drowned, while the approximate 70 survivors were executed. Both ships were part of the Spanish Armada, whose initial aim was to help the Duke of Parma’s army to cross from France to England and, having accomplished this, the Armada’s second objective was to wipe out the English fleet. In recent months, the San Marcos Project, which is headed locally by John Treacy, a postgraduate researcher and Mary Immaculate College PHD student, has started its quest to elicit if the wreck of the doomed 790-tonne Portuguese galleon can be located. When it sailed from Corunna, it carried 33 guns, 409 men, including 292 soldiers and 117 …

Peter O’Connell DONALD J Trump and his family touched down in Shannon airport on Monday morning. The visit represents the billionaire owner of Trump International Golf Links Ireland first visit to the county since his €15 purchase of Doonbeg Golf Club earlier this year. Accompanied, on a private jet, by his sons Donald Junior and Eric and daughter Ivanka, Mr Trump said that his company would “double or triple” their initial outlay in Doonbeg, while he also said that the company would create “many hundreds of jobs.” Healso  confirmed that his company has been in touch with the European Tour, regarding the possibility of The Irish Open being stated in Doonbeg. Stating that remedial and improvement work on the golf course would be largely completed within 90 days, Mr Trump said that Clare County Council and Mayor of Clare Joe Arkins had “killed,” wind farm plans for the area. Both Clare County Manager Tom Coughlan and Councillor Arkins were amongst the …