Tag Archives: Kilrush

KILRUSH RNLI was put on standby for a short period this Monday following a report that an aircraft was experiencing difficulties on its approach to Shannon Airport. The volunteer lifeboat crew was contacted by Valentia Coast Guard at 11.50am and made aware that the plane, described as an air to air refueller, was experiencing engine trouble as it made its way across the Atlantic. John Lamb, Kilrush RNLI Lifeboat operations manager requested the station’s volunteer crew to launch and remain on standby. Within minutes, crew members were geared up and the lifeboat was launched. Valentia Coast Guard was informed and the crew remained on the water awaiting instructions. At 12.35pm, the plane made a safe landing at Shannon Airport. The Coast Guard requested the lifeboat and the crew to stand down. Speaking following the call out, Kilrush RNLI helm, Pauline Dunleavy said, “Thankfully, the aircraft was able to make a safe landing this afternoon. It is at times like these …

By Peter O’Connell GHOSTS of Kilrush, an autobiographical account of life in the West Clare town in the 1940s, is to be made into a Hollywood film by Los Angeles based Grafton Street Productions. The book, which was written by Joe Riley, who now lives in the Philippines, was published in 2003. He sold the film right for a mere dollar. “The story in the book is very simple,” Joe Riley told The Clare Champion this week. “You had Aunty May whose son was murdered at St Senan’s Well. I was a little kid, four years of age. I had no mum or no dad. What ended up happening was, two people mending each other. That’s what the story is about,” he explained. Chris Cusack is executive producer with Grafton Street Productions and is a former associate producer with the Disney ABC Television Group and an executive producer with Vin Di Bona Productions. “He has roots, I believe in Clare,” …

GARDAÍ targeting the sale and supply of controlled drugs in the Kilkee area,  yesterday discovered two separate cannabis cultivation operations. Gardaí searched a house in Lislanahan, Kilkee, where approximately 200 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of €160,000  were discovered. A man and woman, both aged 23 years, were arrested and detained at Kilrush Garda station under the provisions of Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984. In the second operation, gardaí searched a property in Tullaroe, Kilkee, where approximately 300 cannabis plants with an estimated street value of €280,000 were discovered. A man in his 50s was arrested and detained at Ennis Garda station under the provisions of Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act, 1996. These finds follow on from from a cannabis “grow” find in Carrigaholt area last week.

CLARE County Council has written to Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Prendeville on six occasions in an effort to elicit an apology for a comment passed to a member of their staff at a traffic management meeting in Kilrush in February. However, Councillor Prendeville insists that he did apologise in February and claims his apology is written into the minutes of that meeting. While he described the apology as “contrite and sincere”, Councillor Prendeville claims he was contacted six weeks later and told that the apology wasn’t sufficient. The comment was made during a debate on the placement of double yellow lines on both sides of the Back Road, outside St Senan’s National School in Kilrush. Councillor Prendeville opposed this development, which has led to parents having to park illegally when dropping and collecting their children from school. RIMS meetings are believed to be unique to Kilrush Town Council. They are held in camera, deal with traffic management issues in Kilrush …

KILRUSH town councillor Tom Prendeville has revealed that Fianna Fáil has no registered members in the West Clare capital. “Within Kilrush there is no registered member within five or six miles. We haven’t got the members. People are not coming forward. So don’t be lulled into a false sense of security and say everything is ok. We effectively tonight sent out a message that we are a rural organisation. It’s inconceivable that where we have the municipal capital of the new electoral area, we won’t have a Fianna Fáil candidate. That’s not good for Fianna Fáil. We are in trouble, big, big trouble in the urban areas,” Councillor Prendeville told Monday night’s selection convention in Spanish Point, where he failed to win a place on the ticket for the 2014 county council elections. Responding to news that Fianna Fáil membership is non-existent in Kilrush town, Deputy Niall Collins asked why that was the case. “I’d ask the question why isn’t …

RECENT garda operations in Kilrush have created a sense of “paranoia” among a criminal element in the town. Garda Superintendent Seamus Nolan outlined this view at Wednesday morning’s Joint Policing Committee (JPC) meeting in Kilrush, the day after 11 people were arrested in the town as part of an investigation into unlawful money lending. The investigation, which has been ongoing for several months, is focused on people suspected to be engaged in unlicensed money lending. The searches, which commenced at 7am on Tuesday morning, were carried out at a number of premises in Kilrush, including private and business premises and involved up to 100 gardaí, including the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), Regional Support Unit, special detective units from Galway, the National Criminal Intelligence Unit, as well as officials from Revenue, Social Welfare and Clare County Council. Five men, aged between 18 and 55 years and six females, aged between 20 and 49, were arrested and detained at various garda stations …

As part of an ongoing investigation into unlawful money lending, gardai in Clare have arrested 11 people following searches in the Kilrush on Tuesday morning. The searches, which commenced at 7am, were carried out at a number of premises in the area, including private and business premises and involved local gardaí assisted by Criminal Assets Bureau, Regional Support Unit, Special Dectective Units from Galway, the National Criminal Intelligence Unit as well as offcials from Revenue, Social Welfare and Clare County Council. The arrests include five males aged between 18 and 55  years, and six females aged between 20 and 49 years. All those arrested are detained at stations in Clare, Limerick and Galway under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act. The investigation, which has been ongoing for several months, centres around complaints received from various individuals and is focused on persons suspected to be engaged in unlicensed money lending.

A KILRUSH man, who is now director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN), said he had no choice but to leave West Clare as a young man. Brian Sheehan was reflecting on how public attitudes and opinions have changed so much since the early 1980s, as he spoke to The Clare Champion following the announcement that a referendum on gay and lesbian marriage will be held in 2015. “I knew I had to leave Kilrush as soon as I possibly could. I knew I was gay from a very young age and I knew I had to get out. Dublin was where I eventually got to,” Mr Sheehan said on Wednesday. “I had thought I would have to go abroad but decriminalisation came and circumstances changed. I realised I wouldn’t be a criminal if I stayed here any longer. At the time, I always felt that it would be absolutely impossible to be myself in Kilrush. I knew …