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Tag Archives: Kilbaha

Hanging on the words of Micheál O’Hehir

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 …

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Old school given new lease of life in west Clare community

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 …

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Parents claim new Loop Head peninsula collection point is “dangerous”

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 …

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Loophead phone coverage ‘virtually non-existent’

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. …

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Loop Head Lighthouse to open on March 16 for new season

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 …

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Loop Head’s Fenians honoured

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 …

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OPW funding for flood risk studies

There has been confirmation that the OPW has approved funding for coastal erosion and flood risk management studies for Kilbaha and New Quay. “Following representations, I was pleased to be informed by the Minister of State, with responsibility for the OPW, Simon Harris that the OPW has agreed in principle to provide funding to Clare County Council to undertake these studies in Kilbaha and New Quay,” local TD Pat Breen. “I understand that Aughinish may also be included in the scope of the New Quay Study,” he added in welcoming the initiative. “Kilbaha was very badly affected by the storms last year when the sea wall was very badly undermined and 150 metres of the regional road was completely removed. Extensive clean up and remedial works were carried out at the time by Clare County Council. Funding was provided from the Department of the Environment to assist the local authority with these repairs. In addition, €18,000 was provided by the …

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Loop Head lighthouse to re-open this weekend

CLARE County Council has reversed its initial decision not to open Loop Head lighthouse, on a daily basis, until the June Bank Holiday weekend. The lighthouse will now open on Saturday and will remain open daily (10am to 6pm) until the end of September. In last weeks Clare Champion Kilbaha businessman Bernie Keating said that the lighthouse should open “every day from the month of May,” as he felt visitor numbers warranted it. In 2013 the lighthouse opened on St Patrick’s Day. Clare County Council manages the lighthouse in conjunction with the Commissioners of Irish Lights. It is one of two Signature Discovery Points in Clare along the route of the recently launched Wild Atlantic Way and attracted 19,000 visitors during the six-month opening period in 2013. The figure represents an increase of 2,000 on the same period in 2012. “The public opening of Loop Head lighthouse will provide a significant boost to the local tourism sector and the economy, …

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