Tag Archives: lahinch

ONE of the country’s best known golf clubs, Lahinch Golf Club recorded a “manageable” operating loss of €303,199 last year, reports Gordon Deegan. In a report presented to members at the club’s virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday via Zoom, chairperson of Lahinch GC Council, Martin O’Sullivan stated that “the overwhelming dominant feature of 2020 was the advent of Covid-19 and the consequent challenges it presented”. Lahinch staged the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open and counts former Ireland rugby captain, Paul O’Connell as one of its members. Commenting on the 2020 operating loss in the report, Mr O’Sullivan said, “While any loss is unwelcome, the outturn is acceptable, when compared with our peer group, and is manageable once some normality returns, hopefully later this year.” Mr O’Sullivan said Lahinch GC’s financial performance has been substantially impacted as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic “which resulted in the closure of the club and its facilities to members and guests …

MORE than 17,000 first doses of vaccines against Covid-19 have been delivered by vaccinators in the Mid-West, according to official figures. The UL Hospitals’ Group vaccination programme resumed administering the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the Mid-West Vaccination Centre in the Radisson Blu on Sunday, March 21. Up to close of business on Sunday March 21st, ovaccinators had delivered a total of 17,167 first doses, and 5,248 second doses of Covid-19 vaccine. The group’s Vaccination Programme has been rolled out to healthcare workers across the Mid-West, including staff from the group, HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare, the National Ambulance Service, and staff and residents of some nursing home facilities. It has also included patients at very high risk of illness associated with Covid-19, of whom some 699 received their Dose 1 vaccinations on Sunday. Colette Cowan, Chief Executive Officer, UL Hospitals’ Group, said staff are privileged to be part of this mass vaccination programme and noted it is a great boost to …

LAHINCH-based singer-songwriter Susan Quirke has shared a new single ‘To the Bone’, which features on her eagerly-anticipated debut album Into the Sea, due out next month. The single is described as “a timely, soothing, and uplifting song” about drawing on our personal reserves of strength in times of trouble. “Many people are experiencing deep pain, grief, loneliness and isolation as a result of the pandemic,” Susan said. “In many ways suffering is part of the human journey, as is the tremendous courage, resilience and strength people can often demonstrate during tough times.” Susan’s reasons for writing the song are deeply personal, but speak to the universal struggles created by Covid-19. “I wrote this song for someone in my life who was going through a difficult time,” she said. “It was written as an invocation for them, calling on them to remember their power and strength. It’s also written as a balm to soothe people’s hearts and minds. It starts off …

NORTH Clare is to feature prominently in one of the year’s most eagerly awaited home-grown drama series, Smother, which will air on RTÉ One next Sunday night. Shot on location in Lahinch, Liscannor, Spanish Point, Fanore, Ennistymon and Lisdoonvarna, the six-part drama is described as a “domestic noir thriller,” and is a co-production with BBC. It was filmed last year in adherence with pandemic guidelines. The high-end production featured a number of locals as crew members and extras. Writer Kate O’Riordan, who worked on the hit series Mr Selfridge, created the family thriller which sees her tight-knit family of characters gradually unearth deeply buried secrets and live with their unintended consequences. The all-star cast is headed up by Dervla Kirwan who plays matriarch Val – a devoted mother who is determined to protect her family and particularly her three daughters Jenny, Anna, and Grace, at any cost. Jenny (played by Niamh Walsh of Good Omens and Jamestown is a doctor, facing …

DEMAND for property in coastal Clare continues to increase, to the point where the working from home phenomenon has been likened by a local businessman and public representative to a revolution. The potential for remote working created by digital technologies, and introduced out of necessity during the pandemic, is proving to be a game-changer for rural communities which up to last year had been facing the prospect of accelerating depopulation. Now, demand from city dwellers looking to relocate, as well as holiday home owners who have switched their primary residence has boosted the population of coastal communities. A property price survey conducted by The Sunday Times showed that while the median house price in Clare is down from €194,500 to €191,000, coastal property prices continue to rise. Demand for property in Kilkee and Lahinch was aid to be “insatiable” with a three-bedroom semi-detached home in the latter recently selling for €274,000, after multiple bids. “We are at a transition point,” …

Lahinch author Ruairí McKiernan writes about the challenges of writing his first book, overcoming initial rejection from publishers, and then launching what became a No.1 bestseller at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was never my dream to write a book, but it seemed life had other plans. The first call to write came when I was 23 and living in Canada. A publisher approached me after hearing me on the radio discussing globalisation. I was no expert on the subject, but I decided to give it a go. A third of the way through the first draft I gave up. Too hard, too time-consuming; the writing life not for me. “Never again,” I said. Fast forward a decade. I’m hitchhiking around Ireland on what I called a listening tour; seeking out hope for myself and my country. At that time I was burnt out, feeling lost and depressed, and so too was post-boom Ireland. I began meditating, bringing awareness to …

REMOTE working and other changes prompted by the pandemic have provided a business boost for a Lahinch-based tech company who is to double the size of its workforce. HRLocker, a specialist in the use of human resource (HR) solutions, is to create 50 new jobs such is the rise in demand for its services. The new roles, many of which will be in Sales and Marketing, are said to be a direct result of the huge shift to remote working prompted by Covid-19. The company automates the administrative elements of HR, such as performance management, absence management, continuous professional development and timesheets and also offers a range of tools to help manage remote teams. In response to demand from clients, over the course of 2020, HRLocker introduced a number of new features to support remote and blended working. These include geolocation logins, contactless clock-ins, employee self-service and digital noticeboards. Adam Coleman, CEO of HRLocker, said employers are now actively looking …

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas break. I know it was a bit different from other years but that didn’t make it any worse. Before the real lockdown happened, I got the chance to pay a flying visit to two of my favourite places – Brooklodge in Wicklow and The Twelve in Barna. We hardly stirred from either hotel, with lazy days spent snoozing in the room or in the lounge. A change is as good as a rest and snoozing in different surroundings is very refreshing I always find. I had some sad news in BrookLodge though. My friend Oscar went to Doggie Heaven a few weeks before our arrival. I’ll miss him as he was always good for a laugh and a gossip. He had a lovely, long, happy life though and that’s all a dog ever wants. On the way to Galway from BrookLodge, we stopped in Dublin to meet my Aunty Aileen and we …