Tag Archives: Kilbaha

It was launch day for ‘The Five Pilots’ last Saturday on the bay at Carrigaholt, when the community built St Ayles skiff was introduced to the Estuary waters. Loop Head Rowing Club is the local group behind the building of the St Ayles skiff, a four oared rowing boat normally crewed by four sweep rowers with a coxswain. Built by 16 members of the club, the skiff has been named ‘The Five Pilots’ as a tribute to the five fishermen from Kilbaha who drowned when their boat was hit by a freak wave on May 8, 1873. The five pilots were Michael Brennan and his nephew Thomas Brennan, John McNamara, Patrick Carmody and Seamus Bán Crotty. Seats in rowing boats are ordinarily numbered but in this craft each of the eats will be named after a pilot. Poignantly, a reserve seat, a sixth position, was named after one of the boat builders, Fintan Ryan from Carrigaholt who died suddenly in …

  A PUBLIC meeting took place in Kilbaha last night, as locals began a campaign against the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth’s decision to transfer Ukrainian residents of Loop Head Lodge away from the area.   They subsequently released a statement demanding that Government ministers come to one of the most remote parts of the county and hear their concerns.   “The community of the Loop Head Peninsula, Co. Clare, have been devastated to receive the shocking news that their Ukrainian neighbours have been issued with a relocation notice this week.”Considering that this Government encouraged communities to foster inclusivity and integration, why are the people of Loop Head, who absolutely excelled in this regard, now being punished?   “Immediately on hearing about this abrupt ’48-hour notice’ plan for relocation, the community have responded by calling an Emergency Meeting to take place in Halla Eoin, Kilbaha, Co. Clare.  V15W273 on Friday the 28th June at 6pm to which …

MENTION Micheál O’Hehir and Marty Crotty immediately responds with a twinkle in his eye. The retired Kilbaha farmer is a GAA fanatic who lived for Mr O’Hehir’s memorable hurling, football and horse racing commentaries from 1938 to 1985. Listening to and watching Gaelic games has given Marty great joy. “Only for the GAA, I would be dead a long time ago,” he quipped. Sometimes on Sundays he listens to one match on the radio and keeps an eye on another one on television with the sound turned down. He can still recite all the names of the 15 starting Cavan All-Ireland winning teams in 1947 and ‘48 and the Meath all conquering side in 1949. “It is a great past time. I don’t know how people who don’t follow GAA manage, what do they be doing at all? It is hard to do without the GAA,” he said. His passionate love affair with Gaelic Games was fostered by legendary GAA …

Halla Eoin, Kilbaha, which served as the parish national school until 1962, has been given a new lease of life and is set for an official reopening this Sunday, writes Mary Keane. The hall has been transformed into a local community hall which incorporates a heritage display. Following a public meeting, held in a dilapidated hall in Halla Eoin in 2018, a committee of dedicated volunteers, with Krystyna Pomeroy as chairperson, was set up to progress the dream and bring it to fruition. It was most certainly the support given by the local Fine Gael county councillor Gabriel Keating along with his pledge of funds from the General Municipal Fund which helped to make the dream a reality. This money, together with a substantial grant from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme enabled the work to begin. The refurbishments were carried out over a period of three years. Most of the work took place during the Covid 19 pandemic. Halla …

BUS Eireann has been accused of selecting a “dangerous junction” for a new collection point on the Loop Head Peninsula that leaves two local secondary school students without a home collection. Philippa Doherty has claimed there is no safe place to park her car at Crotty’s Cross as she waits for her son to be dropped off from a school bus coming from Kilkee Community College. Crotty’s Cross is a small crossroads and the last junction before Loophead lighthouse on the Wild Atlantic Way, which attracts heavy tourist traffic. “There is nowhere to pull in safely, one way is blind so you cannot see oncoming traffic and the bus should not be turning at this junction for safety reasons. The safest way for the bus is to continue down the L2000 from Crotty’s Cross down Fodera and back to Kilbaha village so the bus would not have to turn around at any point,” she explained. She is being supported by …

THE plight of the farming community in accessing mobile phone and broadband services in West Clare has been highlighted by a Loop Head man who estimates that his family have paid more than €1,000 over a six-month period when they have virtually no coverage. John Keane, who lives half way between Cross and Kilbaha, is a dairy farmer, milking over 200 cows a day. He outlined how, since last November, five members of his family have had worsening problems in accessing a phone signal, and said the issue is also affecting the wider community. The situation is now so bad that Mr Keane fears that in the event of him having an accident or a heart attack in his milking parlour, he would be unable to use his phone to raise the alarm. “I would die in the milking parlour, if, God forbid, I had a heart attack,” he said. “As a farmer, the mobile phone is a safety net. …

LOOP Head Lighthouse will open on Saturday, March 16 as the historic West Clare landmark opens to the public for the first time this year. The Kilbaha based lighthouse is located at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary on the Loop Head Peninsula, which is one of two “Signature Discovery Points” in  Clare along the route of the Wild Atlantic Way. It also is a landmark location on the Loop Head Heritage Trail and is one of 12 Great Lighthouses of Ireland. Loop Head Lighthouse is steeped in history and is rich in maritime heritage with its origins dating back to the 1670s. The existing tower style lighthouse was constructed in 1854 and was operated and maintained by a keeper who lived within the lighthouse compound. In January 1991, the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation, and today is monitored by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. The lighthouse, which attracted almost 25,000 visitors in 2018, will remain open daily (10 …

THIS weekend, Kilbaha, which is the most westerly village on the Clare coast, will mark the 150th anniversary of the community’s role in the Fenian Rising on March 5, 1867. The Fenians of Loop Head were among the few groups throughout the country who rose up on that day. On Saturday, in Kilbaha hall, Scott Deloughery, great-grandson of John Deloughery, who was leader of the Kilbaha Fenians in 1867 and subsequently emigrated to Newtown, Connecticut, will launch an exhibition of contemporary newspaper accounts of the event. Saturday and Sunday will also feature further talks, a guided historic walk and a wreath-laying ceremony. Historian Paddy Waldron, who will deliver a talk on The West Clare Fenians on Saturday, believes this is Scott’s first visit to Ireland. The attack on Kilbaha Coastguard Station took place on Shrove Tuesday night, 150 years ago. “There were five rebels. There were various other people charged afterwards. Thomas McCarthy Fennell became the best known of the …