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Opening doors to AA

THERE will be an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous next Thursday at 8.30pm at St Senan’s National School in Shannon. While almost all meetings of AA are confined to people who have a desire to stop drinking, this is quite different, with anyone welcome to attend. This means it is a chance for someone who feels they could potentially benefit from what AA offers to find out a bit more about the organisation, for anyone who feels a loved one may have a problem or anybody who simply has an interest in finding out about AA. In relation to next week’s event, a spokesman for AA in Clare said, “An open meeting is a public one, open to anyone who wants to walk in. All AA meetings are closed, except for those. Members of the public, press, anyone who wants to attend, can come in. “There are two AA speakers, then an Al Anon member as well, who will give …

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Ennis Samaritans respond to 50,000 calls for help

Ennis Samaritans answered 40,995 calls for help in the last 12 months, with most of these calls received out of hours when other support is not available. These call details were released in the 2015-2016 Impact Report covering Samaritans’ work in Ireland, which was launched this week. According to the report, over 639,652 calls for help were answered by Samaritans volunteers across Ireland in the last year. More than one in three calls to Samaritans’ national helpline were received between 6pm and 12am and 63% of all calls to the service are made between 6pm and 6am. Claire Cremmin, Director of Ennis branch, said: “We know that people don’t just struggle to cope between the hours of 9 to 5. The statistics released in our Impact Report 2015-2016 show many calls come through to the service throughout the evening and early morning hours, a time that can be lonely and isolating for those experiencing feelings of distress. Samaritans are the …

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Inagh woman’s Calais crusade

SHOCKING television images of the migrant crisis in Calais has spurred one Clare woman into dramatic action. A conversation at the end of last week between Inagh’s Róisín Ní Gháirbhith and a friend of hers in Cork about the situation at the French port has now turned into a national humanitarian aid convoy involving two trucks, 10 vans, two camper vans, six cars and 40 volunteers. Desperate migrants from North Africa and the Middle East have been travelling to Calais in an effort to enter the UK. Some have attempted to walk the 31-mile Channel Tunnel, while others try to stow away on trucks using the Eurotunnel or on ships travelling from the port. Others try to climb aboard the Eurostar train. Now Calais is home to large, poorly-equipped camps and an estimated 3,000 migrants, mainly men and boys, many of whom paid large sums to people smugglers to get there. “I was watching all this on television and reading …

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