Tag Archives: lisdoonvarna

Generations of students who were educated at Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna will return to their alma mater next week to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the school. The secondary school, which was founded in 1949 by the Sisters of Mercy, will host a reunion celebration on Saturday, November 2, with a packed day of activities set to take place. Events will begin with a mass at Corpus Christi Church in Lisdoonvarna from 2pm, to commemorate the school’s rich history and celebrate the local community. People are also invited to gather at the school for light refreshments and to reconnect with old friends. Former students can also visit their old classrooms by taking a guided tour of the school, hosted by a current student. The celebrations will culminate with a dinner dance at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon beginning at 6pm. Mary Immaculate Secondary School has been a beacon of education in the Burren region for generations. From its …

More than 250 North Clare people have joined REKO Meitheal Lisdoonvarna, a new form of farmers’ market which has started to take off in recent months. REKO is a Finnish trading movement which aims to promote local producers and encourage fair consumption. Thousands of REKO-rings, or local markets, have been established across Scandinavia and northern Europe in recent years, with the first Irish REKO ring being set up in Lahinch in 2018. REKO rings are different to farmers’ markets in that all the purchasing is done online each week, usually through a dedicated Facebook page, and the ring itself is only for exchanging the pre-ordered products for payment. This has a number of benefits for both customers and producers, with both knowing exactly what they are buying and selling before the ring even starts. Because no transactions are taking place during the REKO ring itself, it means that the event can take place anywhere, and doesn’t have to be located …

ALREADY driven out of their homes and in many cases bereaved due to Russian barbarity, Ukrainian refugees at Phoenix House in Shannon were given just a fortnight’s notice that they would be relocated to Lisdoonvarna. For many of working age it will mean the loss of their jobs as very few of the Ukrainian community there have their own cars. For elderly people it will mean having to get public transport from Lisdoonvarna to Limerick for medical appointments, with the process to be negotiated through a language barrier. For children it means more instability, after already having fled their homes and been through the trauma of witnessing the horror of war up close. On  last Friday afternoon, many of the Ukrainians who have to leave Phoenix House spoke to the Clare Champion about having to start over again. Most of those we spoke to were from cities that have become familiar to Irish people from the Russian barbarity of the …

Fine Gael councillor Joe Garrihy who has been elected again to the Ennistymon local electoral area (LEA) has reiterated his comments made earlier this year around a need by national government to have a proper exit strategy and management plan to engage with the international protection accommodation service (IPAS) clients and North Clare community on. The Lisdoonvarna councillor added he will taking that request right to the doors of Leinster House at the earliest possible opportunity with a delegation from North Clare. His home of Lisdoonvarna has accommodated approximately 1,100 Ukrainians and 100 international protection clients meaning it is the LEA with the fourth highest number of IPAS residents in the country. The town’s population of around 900 people has more than doubled since the Russian war on Ukraine started in February 2021. Speaking to The Clare Champion following his victory, Councillor Garrihy was critical of national government saying that governing from a far is not working, and that a …

MINISTER Roderic O’Gorman has today claimed that Ukrainian refugees are being moved from Phoenix House in Shannon due to concerns about the suitability of the building. The 75 residents have received just two weeks notice that they will have to leave the building they have called home for some time, as they are to be transferred to Lisdoonvarna. Several of residents this week told the Clare Champion that the move will see them have to quit jobs they have taken up locally, while there are concerns about the impact of the sudden move on children already traumatised as a result of the Russian violence inflicted on their home towns. In a message to Clare TD Cathal Crowe on Wednesday, Minister O’Gorman said, “The contract for this property was terminated due to concerns raised following a site visit by the Ukraine Compliance team, along with QTS, an independent inspection company hired by the Department, and the Department of Social Protection. The …

Lisdoonvarna’s Tina O’Connell, has been named as the winner of the prestigious 2024 Global Travel Award. Tina, who is a in sculpture and combined media graduate at the Limerick School of Art and Design, received the award for her breathtaking piece entitled Odysseys of Self. She was selected as winner by a highly respected panel of artists and curators including artist Laura Fitzgerald, Paul McAree who is the curator at Lismore Castle Arts, Patrick Murphy the Director of the Royal Hibernian Academy and Aoife Ruane. The Global Travel Award of €5,000, is open to all students graduating from its BA in Fine Art and B.Ed Art and Design Teacher Education in 2024. The award has been designed to offer the chosen graduate a unique opportunity to develop their future career. This is the second year of granting the award to a new graduate artist. This generous philanthropic funding has been made available for students with support from The Ireland Funds. …

A Central Criminal Court jury has this morning unanimously found a nephew guilty of murdering his 78-year-old uncle by stamping him to death while wearing steel-capped boots. The jury agreed with the prosecution case that Thomas Lorigan was the man who was caught on CCTV delivering calculated, “well-aimed” kicks as widower John O’Neill lay helplessly on the ground outside his home in Lisdoonvarna in Co Clare. A garda witness told the jury that the pensioner had been severely beaten to the point where he was “unrecognisable”. There was no known motive for the murder but State prosecutors submitted the fact that there was no cash robbery and that family photos were found smashed suggested the killing was “something personal”. Thomas Lorigan (34), of no fixed abode, had pleaded not guilty to murdering John O’Neill (78) at St Brendan’s Road, Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare on a date unknown between January 6 and 7, 2022. The Central Criminal Court trial heard that Lorigan …

NEW figures from the Department of Education show that there are now 531 Ukrainian children in Clare primary schools and another 326 in the county’s second level schools. Cork, Donegal, Dublin and Kerry are the only counties with more Ukrainian pupils, however even Donegal and Kerry have significantly greater populations than Clare, as well as Cork and Dublin. Overall around 6.5% of the Ukrainian children attending Irish schools are doing so in County Clare. While the numbers are large, Clare TD Cathal Crowe said that the Department of Education have coped quite well with a very challenging situation. “Capacity is a problem, yet capacity can always be increased if decisions are taken quickly to do so. I would think that from the get-go Minister Norma Foley’s office have been one of the better departments to engage. “They set up a team of people in each regional area, so there’s a Mid-West team that have been dealing with school principals. “There …