Tag Archives: Kilrush

Cratloe 2-6 Kilrush 0-7 NOWHERE near as fluent as in their 11-point defeat of Cooraclare a week earlier, Cratloe did enough to hold off a limited Kilrush and secure a county semi-final place against Éire Óg in Clarecastle on Sunday. Kilrush set themselves up to limit Cratloe’s attacking options and to close the space into which they sought to run. To a degree, this policy worked, in that it kept Kilrush competitive. Yet only Jim Young, of Kilrush’s forwards, managed even a single point from play. The Kilrush free-taker kicked five points from dead balls, while early substitute Paddy Clancy was their only additional point scorer. Playing with a strong breeze in the opening half in Clarecastle on Sunday, Cratloe were somewhat lucky to lead 1-4 to 0-2 at half time. Ten minutes before half time, a long delivery from Seán Collins evaded Kilrush goalkeeper Tony Burke and dropped in. Fergal Lynch, playing at full-forward, had made a run that …

KILRUSH town councillor Tom Prendeville has predicted “Armageddon” for business in the town if rates are increased by up to 16.5% from January 1, 2015. Currently Kilrush has the lowest rates in Clare but with the abolishment of town councils likely to go ahead next year, business rates across Clare will almost definitely be harmonised. “What you will find is that more businesses will go to the wall. The result of that will be that rates will probably increase pro rata. Those that survive will have to pay more money to survive. It’s an Armageddon state of affairs for anybody in business in Kilrush if this harmonisation is going to occur, which it will do from January 2015,” he claimed. “The annual rate of valuation in Kilrush at the moment is €61.93 per square foot. That is sometimes refereed to as the general rate. Clare County Council has a rate of €72.99. So if there is harmonisation of the rates …

HAVING seen at first hand how fluently Cratloe played against Cooraclare, Kilrush manager Aidan Moloney knows his team will have to work exceptionally hard, defend in numbers and tackle ferociously if they are to compete with their opponents in Sunday’s Senior Football Championship quarter-final. Last year’s semi-finalists have been boosted by the return of John Moody. who could have a key role to play at midfield, where Fergal Lynch and Cillian Duggan dominated against Cooraclare. However, Moloney has identified not conceding goals as a paramount priority. “From our point of view, Cratloe looked very impressive the last day. We’d be hoping that Kilrush come with a lot of intensity. There’s no doubt but that if we’re going to go out and concede goals, we haven’t a prayer against them. “If we can stop them scoring goals and make them kick from further out, I think we might have a chance,” he suggested. Cratloe blitzed Cooraclare, largely by running at them …

By Peter O’Connell HE doesn’t look 90 and can’t quite believe that he is. Tom Whelan, originally from Doonbeg, has been living and working in O’Dea’s Road, Kilrush for several decades. He has shod thousands of horses since training as a farrier with Barry’s in Kilrush many decades ago. These days, Tom still tips away in his forge across from his house. “Tis a pity,” he laughs when the 90-year figure is mentioned. “Hard work. A lad that sits down gets seized up. It’s like a car or a tractor that’s idle. It seizes up,” Tom replied when asked how he was in such fettle. “I was always on them,” he added, pointing to his finely polished work boots. Tom has been around horses since he was knee high to a foal. When he was growing up in rural West Clare, everybody had a horse. They were essential. “Everyone had a horse,  a pony and an ass. Creamery, ploughing and …

CLARE County Council has identified a proposed sports complex in Kilrush as the county’s primary candidate for a possible €58,882 grant from a new initiative called Sport Nation. Kilrush town manager Anne Haugh revealed details of the grant application at last week’s town council meeting. Kilrush Town Council had previously and unsuccessfully applied for funding, under the Sports Capital Grant, for the Cooraclare Road sports complex. Details of the proposed complex were first announced at a Kilrush Town Council meeting in June 2011. The complex is to be located on the Cooraclare Road, where the ESB Moneypoint sports facilities are situated and on adjoining land owned by the Department of Education. At the 2011 meeting, Kilrush Town Council heard that 12 months of talks had culminated in a lease agreement between the council and landowners, the ESB and Department of Education. If the current funding application is successful, it could kick-start the complex, which has yet to receive sufficient public …

THERE was a substantial reduction in the number of people signing on in Clare during September. There were just shy of 9,000 people (8,983) on the live register in Clare during September, compared to 9,613 in August. The drop of 630 equates to a reduction of 6.5%. Most of the people on the live register in Clare are attached to the Social Welfare Office in Ennis and unsurprisingly that’s where most of the reduction was concentrated. While there were 5,535 signing on in Ennis in August, this was down to 5,094 in September, a drop of 441. This was the biggest drop at any of the four Social Welfare Offices in Clare, while the figures also improved at the other three. In Ennistymon it went from 1,369 in August to 1,318 last month. At Kilrush it dropped from 1,310 to 1,279 and in Tulla from 1,399 to 1,292. The number of under 25s signing on in Clare dropped by 154, …

INCREDIBLE though it might seem, when it emerged that Cypriots were having their bank accounts raided as part of the island’s bailout, it led to an increase in business for those selling clothes in small towns on the far side of Europe. Patrick Bourke found that people, particularly older people, were inclined to turn part of their savings into something tangible, lest Ireland’s dysfunctional banks be next in the firing line. “It helped us. People were afraid their money would be lost so they decided to spend their money instead of losing it. You’d notice it with older people rather than younger people, because younger people hadn’t the money sitting there.” He operates men’s clothes shops in both Kilrush and Ennis and is the third generation of his family in the business. “It started in 1928, we’re 85 years in business this year in our shop in Kilrush. My grandfather started it in 1928, my father took it over in …

IN recent weeks, Kilrush Town Councillor Tom Clyne retired from his role as a FÁS job initiative worker in the town. The former town mayor, who was first elected to the local council in 2004, has worked in the position since 1998. As he remembers it, a significant amount of people were employed on the jobs initiative scheme 15 years ago. That figure has since drastically reduced. “There are about 10 people on the scheme in Kilrush at the moment. We have lost a lot of people through retirement or death in the last few years. I think there was 21 on the scheme in 1998,” Mr Clyne said this week. The Westmeath man, whose wife Breda is from Kilrush, worked primarily as a maintenance man on the scheme. “I was one of the people assigned to do the house maintenance for Kilrush Town Council, who were our sponsors. I was a general operative starting off but as we progressed, …