Tag Archives: Ennis Fire Station

STRICKEN homeowners affected by pyrite will have the opportunity on Friday (August 27) to ask the Housing Minister directly for support. Minister Darragh O’Brien is to meet members of the Clare Pyrite Action Group in Ennis before travelling to one of their homes to see first-hand the devastating impact of defective blocks. The Department of Housing is in receipt, since the end of July, of a detailed report compiled by the local authority to prove the presence of pyrite. The detailed technical document asks that the Defective Concrete Blocks Scheme be extended to Clare. Dr Martina Cleary, founder of the action group, will be among those to meet the minister. “I hope he’s listening and will take the situation seriously,” she said. “There is no excuse now to delay redress for homeowners here. The evidence is there. He had already visited and provided independent support for his own constituents and that’s more than he has done for us to-date. We’ve …

A FORMER member of Clare County Council says he is lucky to have escaped with his life, after a fire destroyed his family home in Clarecastle. Bernard Hanrahan, an active member of the community and former Fianna Fáil representative on the local authority, awoke in the early hours of last Sunday morning to find his home in flames. He told The Champion that if it wasn’t for the fact his dog alerted him to the danger, he might not have escaped the blaze. Bernard, who lives alone in the home where he was born and raised, credits his faithful bison frise with saving him. “It was around 5am when I heard Daisy barking,” he said. “She wouldn’t normally be looking to get out until around 7.30am. I knew something was wrong. I got up and then heard a bang. I thought straight away that someone was trying to break in. When I got close to the kitchen, I was hit with …