Tag Archives: killaloe

THE St Patrick’s Day parade in Killaloe was one of the biggest in the county, with enthusiastic crowd watching it cross from Ballina into Killaloe.   The was plenty of colour and atmosphere, with a diverse range of floats, as well as bands and community groups. The organisers were delighted that the parade, one of the key events in the Brian Boru millennium programme, was such an overwhelming success.

By Dan Danaher THE lifesaving exploits of a Great Dane were honoured with a national award recently. Charlie’s ability to detect when Brianna Lynch (3) is going to have a seizure, has been officially recognised by the Irish Great Dane Club (IGDC) Club. This makes him a welcome member of the Killaloe/Ballina community, where Brian Boru once reigned. There were up to 30 of the giant breed shown at the club’s open show annual event in Cloghran, Dublin. Brianna and Charlie were due to attend with Arabella but due to Brianna’s ill heath they could not do so. Brianna’s sister, Rose came to the event and received the award on their behalf. The award was presented by the IGDC president, Mary U Nolan and by the IKC president, Sean Delmar. Clare Ryan, who is a member of the IGDC, said she was incredibly proud to have bred Charlie and for his super temperament to be making such a difference. Ms …

Paralympics Ireland this week announced a panel of 45 athletes across eleven sports, comprised of those considered most likely to qualify for the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. Killaloe swimmer Jonathan McGrath is a member of the squad. The panel will come together for the first time as a group in March when they meet for the initial multisport training camp of the Rio cycle, in Limerick. Commenting on the announcement of the 2014 panel, Paralympics Ireland performance manager, Dave Malone said, “Being named on the panel is always a notable step on the journey to secure Paralympic Games qualification for an athlete.” The panel boasts several London 2012 medallists including athletes Jason Smyth and Michael McKillop, swimmer Darragh McDonald and handcyclist Mark Rohan. Also notable is the welcome return of the 7-a-side CP football squad, who agonisingly missed out on London qualification. Promisingly, there is one athlete each from the two sports set to make their Paralympic debut in Rio; canoeing …

THE  lifesaving exploits of a Great Dane will be fittingly honoured with a national award this weekend. Charlie’s ability to detect when a three year-old Killaloe child is going to have a seizure, will be officially recognised by the Irish Great Dane (IGD) club at a national ceremony in Dublin. The club wanted to honour Charlie following the phenomenal response to Clare Champion story highlighting the unique bond between the dog and Brianna Lynch, which enabled him to detect her frequent seizures, up to 20 minutes before the start of each episode. The once-off award, which has never been presented to any other dog previously, will be presented to Arabella Scanlan and Charlie as the Great Dane Open Show in the National Show Centre, Dublin this Saturday. Claire Daly of the IGD said the club were delighted to present Charlie with the award following the huge national and international reaction to the Clare  Champion story. “The club is 51 years …

By Dan Danaher A RANDOM meeting with Taoiseach Enda Kenny blossomed into a great working relationship with one of the co-founders of an innovative award-winning tree mapping company, who has strong links with Killaloe. Enda Keane, who was educated in Killaloe, met Mr Kenny by chance at Merrion Square, Dublin back in December 2011 and they spent about 30 minutes talking about his business, Treemetrics, which has won and been nominated for numerous national and international awards. Born in Cork, Enda and his family moved to Killaloe when he was nine.His father, Paddy was a wildlife officer with the National Parks and Wildlife Service so it was no great surprise when Enda followed in his footsteps by studying forestry in UCG and UCD. In addition to delivering an address at an official function at Treemetrics’ headquarters in Cork two years ago, the Taoiseach also gave the company a huge boost to their international profile by citing them as one of …

POINT-to-point action returns to the county this weekend with the East Clare Harriers’ hosting their annual meeting on the Flynn family lands at Garranboy, Killaloe. Always a well-supported fixture, Sunday’s meeting kicks off at 1pm with a six-year-old mares’ maiden and this will be followed by a winners’ race. The third event is a five and six-year-old geldings’ maiden while half an hour later runners will go to post for an older geldings’ maiden. The penultimate contest is an older mares’ maiden while a competitive mares’ open will close the card. Stamina will be at a premium on Sunday over what is an undulating, but fair track which will certainly take a bit of getting given the inclement weather we have experienced over the past few weeks. Speaking ahead of Sunday’s fixture, East Clare Hunt point-to-point secretary Gerry English revealed: “We are all set for a great day’s racing. The course is in tip-top shape and we are lucky that …

KILLALOE man Anthony Foley will take over as Munster Rugby head coach from July 1. He is currently serving as forwards coach under Rob Penney whom he will replace in the role. Foley has signed a two year contract that will keep him at the province until June 2016. The Clare man, who was capped 62 times for Ireland and 201 times for Munster, retired from playing at the end of the 2007/08 season. He joined the Munster backroom staff in July 2008 as technical advisor and assistant coach for defence. Since then he has held the position of head coach with both the Munster U-20s and Munster’s British & Irish Cup squad that reached the inaugural B&I Cup final in May 2010. He moved on to his current position, Munster Rugby forwards coach, at the start of the 2011/12 season. Additionally, the 40-year-old has experience at national level as the forwards and head coach for the Ireland Wolfhounds and …

THE Courts Service is prepared to hand over the old Courthouse at Killaloe, Deputy Michael McNamara has confirmed. He described this as very good news, adding that he had been working on the issue for some time. The Labour deputy said Clare Council Council has already expressed an interest in acquiring the building for community use. “The Council will now have an opportunity to invite expressions of interest from local groups for the development and use of the building. I am aware of community groups in Killaloe who are interested in the using the property. The current use of Tulla Courthouse by the community is a precedent for what could be done,” he said. “A new round of Leader funding will become available for development by local community groups towards the end of the end of this year. Furthermore, at the end of last year, the Government announced a Built Heritage Jobs Leverage Scheme to assist owners/occupiers of protected structures …