Tag Archives: Ennistymon

A SENIOR Clare County Council official has said that the local authority expects there to be an oral hearing into plans for Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon. At Tuesday’s meeting of West Clare Municipal District, Senior Engineer Sean Lenihan said, “We published the CPO last June, submissions were to be received by An Bord Pleanála in September, there were 12 or 13 submissions all of which are receiving the required attention both from ourselves and the Board. “We are getting ready for an oral hearing, we imagine there will be an oral hearing, but that’s subject to the Board’s decision. They have alluded to the fact that there will most likely be one, but they haven’t actually given us a date.” He said they had thought there would have been progress by this stage, but it should come within three months. “We were hoping to have news by the end of April, which was last Friday, but what we got from …

THE artist involved in a controversial public sculpture commission for Ennistymon has insisted there is nothing malevolent about his proposed Púca, and that it has real potential to attract and engage visitors, writes Fiona McGarry. Aidan Harte told The Champion that despite the Council’s decision to pause the project in response to public objections, he is hopeful that people will come to appreciate the design of the 2m high artwork. Mr Harte, who has studied sculpture in Florence in Italy, has told Clare County Council he is fully prepared to visit Ennistymon to engage with local people. “We can’t railroad or ignore people’s views,” he said. “This piece certainly isn’t disrespectful. Art is a matter of taste and I can understand that people don’t want art they don’t like, but this is an impressive piece when you see it in the flesh. “I think people will come to appreciate the craft that is involved. I’m more than willing to come …

A PARISH priest today defended staging regular Sunday morning masses during Covid-19 lockdown saying that no person has got Covid-19 from attending his masses, reports Gordon Deegan. PP of Ennistymon, Fr Willie Cummins was speaking on Sunday after 48* mass goers attended 11am mass at the local Catholic church in the north Clare town. At the end of today’s mass, Fr Cummins told mass goers from the altar, “Thank you all for coming and with the help of God, there will be even more next Sunday.” From Monday, priests can celebrate masses with 50 people – however, during the Covid-19 Level 5 lockdown, it has been a criminal offence to attend public mass, other than funerals and weddings. In an interview outside Church after mass ended on Sunday, Fr Cummins said, “There hasn’t been one person who has got Covid from being in there.” Asked how many Sundays he has celebrated mass during the current Covid-19 lockdown, Fr Cummins said, …

THE SEANAD has heard claims of potential health and safety concerns at an East Clare school, if it loses a teacher and has to reduce the number of classroom available to its pupils. The plight of Clooney National School, where pupil numbers are at 73, six short of the 79 needed to retain four teachers, was raised by Senator Timmy Dooley. The Fianna Fáil member made an appeal on behalf of the school on the basis that removing a teacher would mean 73 children would have to be taught in three classrooms instead of four, making the application of pandemic health guidelines more difficult. Senator Dooley added that small schools deserved greater protections in order to support the rejuvenation of rural Ireland. “At a time when we are trying to keep children apart we are cramming them into three rooms as opposed to four, which does not make sense,” Senator Dooley told Minister of State Josepha Madigan, who addressed the …

A NORTH Clare student is proving he is up to scratch when it comes to computer technology. Tom Dandoy, a third year coding student at CBS Ennistymon has been presented with an award in the National Scratch Coding Competition after developing his very own computer game. Tom’s game Spaceship Battles 3 is the final game in a trilogy that he has developed using Scratch programming which he has been learning in school. He was one of 34 finalists from 215 entrants in the competition which is being held as part of Technology Week, a nationwide festival of technology driven events aimed at students, parents and the public. On Wednesday the winners of the competition were announced, with Tom receiving an award for ‘Best Technical Sophistication” after impressing the judges with his game. Tom has been learning Scratch programming for game design at Ennistymon CBS since first year in his coding class with teacher Sean Murphy. All Junior Cycle students in …

“I CAME over to Dublin from Ghana for what was meant to be six months, to help my friends set up a restaurant and plan a menu, then I blinked and found five years had gone by.” Sam Gleeson is reflecting on the road that has led him to Ennistymon and how he has come to set up a knife making business that last week won him a prestigious national craft award with a €10,000 bursary. Using metal and woodworking techniques, and using found and reclaimed materials, even washed-up ocean plastics, he creates beautiful, distinctive knives for culinary use. The plan now is to open a teaching facility in Ennistymon to share his bladesmith craft with others and Sam plans to use his bursary to attend a forge-welding course in the US and take his own skills to the next level. “Reclaimed wood and plastic goes in the handles,” he says, “but what I’m becoming known for is making my …

WORK has started on phase two of a €2 million extension of a unit in Raheen Community Hospital, the Mid-West HSE has confirmed.   The latest extension consists of the provision of a new build ward extension, which will provide HIQA compliant accommodation to seven residents in the existing Community Nursing Unit at Raheen. Following Public Works Restricted Procurement procedure, a contract was awarded to Custy Construction in March and the works have commenced on site. These major works will be carried out in two phases. Phase one consists of the construction of new plant room and services compound and partial demolition of existing stores building to allow for the connection and commissioning of the new services to the existing building. The second phase, which is programmed to start in July 2021, will be the demolition of the remainder of the stores building followed by the construction of the bedroom block. The construction duration is about 12 months to be followed …

Gardaí seized €7,200 of suspected drugs in Ennistymon on Wednesday. As part of an ongoing investigation into the sale and supply of drugs in Ennistymon, Gardaí executed a search warrant at a house on the outskirts of Ennistymon Town. Gardaí from Ennistymon and Kilrush Garda Stations carried out the search at around 5pm. During the course of the search Gardaí seized €6,000 of suspected cannabis herb and €1,200 of suspected cocaine. All of the suspected drugs will now be sent to Forensic Science Ireland for analysis. No arrests have been made but Gardaí are following a definite line of enquiry. Owen Ryan