Tag Archives: Meelick

Clare County Councillors decided to defer making a decision on adopting a controversial road into the County Development Plan, following trenchant opposition from a lobby group. Councillors were given a deadline of July 31 at Monday’s council meeting to make a decision on the proposed Northern Distributor Road. No councillor spoke in favour of proceeding with the preferred route option. Senior planner Gordon Daly warned if councillors decided not to adopt the variation, it had the “potential to end the project for now” and noted that it may not go ahead in the future. Councillors voted by 17 votes to nine to defer a decision on this contentious route until Friday, July 24. The deferral was proposed by Councillor Pat Burke and seconded by Councillor Tom McNamara. Councillor Tony O’Brien proposed a sub-committee be set up including councillors, planners and engineers to try to devise an acceptable alternative proposal. Before the vote, chief executive officer, Tom Coughlan, reminded councillors this …

A special commemoration for the 1921 Republican prisoners on Spike Island in Cork Harbour was held on the island recently. Members of Clare 22 Battalion Association attended the ceremonies and laid a wreath at the memorial to Capt. Paddy White from Meelick who was shot and fatality wounded while imprisoned on the island. Capt White and his comrades were playing hurling in the prison when the ball went outside the boundary. Paddy asked the sentry if he would throw the ball back and was told to go and get it himself. When he did, he was shot by the sentry. A total of 18 Clare prisoners from Ennistymon, Quin, Corofin, Scariff, Mltown Malbay, Mountshannon, Broadford, Tulla, Ennis and Meelick were held on Spike Island in 1921. Republican prisoners were held there during the War of Independence and the island has served as a military base for the Irish Army, FCA and Navy as well as a civilian prison. In 2009 …

BUNRATTY Search and Rescue have recovered a woman’s body from Meelick Creek, close to the Clare/Limerick border. The discovery was made at around 4pm and the body was brought back to Bunratty.

A journal and autograph book that provides a unique insight into life and conditions at Frongoch prisoner of war camp, where an estimated 1,800 Irish participants of The Easter Rising were interned between June and December 1916, has been acquired at auction by Clare Museum. Belonging to IRA Volunteer and future Clare T.D. Patrick Brennan, from Meelick, the album features accounts of life in the North Wales camp, poetry in Irish and English, and coloured illustrations of the camp and its inhabitants. The journal is also autographed by many of the camp’s prisoners including Michael Collins and Richard Mulcahy, who would later become instrumental figures in the ensuing Irish War of Independence and the establishment of the Irish Free State. “Outside of the author’s historic connections with County Clare, this journal and autograph book is hugely important considering the upcoming centenary of the 1916 Rising and the significant influence of the Frongoch camp experience on the future leaders of the …

Gardaí have seized almost half a million euro worth of drugs following two searches carried out in Meelick and O’Briensbridge on Tuesday night. The controlled substance has yet to be analysed but is believed to be heroin. The seizure was made by garda in Limerick and Clare arising from an ongoing operation into the sale and supply of controlled substances in the Limerick Division and in neighbouring counties. One man has been arrested and is currently being detained at Roxboro Road Garda Station in Limerick under drug trafficking legislation. He can be held for questioning without charge for up to a week.

CLARE full-back Kevin Hartnett has a couple of short-term aims. The Meelick man, who returned from the US at Christmas, is very keen that Clare pick up a home win against Leitrim on Sunday. However, he is equally focused on trying to secure employment as soon as he can. Although he has a Bachelor’s degree in fitness from Tralee IT, Hartnett isn’t fussy about what he works at. Before he resumes the job search though, Hartnett is concentrating on this weekend’s league opponents. “Leitrim is the next stepping stone. It was great to get the result against Waterford but you always have to be moving forward. Leitrim on Sunday is all we’re focusing on now. We’re not worried about what’s coming after that or what has happened before. It’s about how we attack Sunday. They had a good win against Antrim. We know they’re going to be good and we just have to prepare ourselves right, give a good whack …

MEELICK GAA Club is in a battle to hold on to three of their more prominent players, it has emerged this week. The Clare Champion has learned from sources within the club that Oisin Hickey, Eanna Mulvihill and Damian Moloney have indicated their desire to transfer to neighbouring clubs Clonlara, Cratloe and Parteen. Already working from a small panel, the loss of any players would undermine the club’s ability to be competitive. Indeed some argue that they would struggle to field at adult level if they were to lose players. This week Clare GAA delegated three of the officers board, Ger Hickey, Sean O’Halloran and Gerry Lynch, to meet with officials of the Meelick club to discuss the current situation. Meelick compete at intermediate hurling level and also compete in junior A football. Just last year the South East Clare club purchased additional land, adjacent to their playing pitch at Knockalisheen, and they have plans in place for further development …

GARDAI are continuing their investigations following a significant seizure of firearms and explosive components in South-East Clare. A substantial amount of what is believed to be dissident explosives, ammunition detonators, a variety of firearms, CS gas containers, magazines and balaclavas were taken from a wooded area in Meelick on Friday evening. An army bomb disposal team was called to examine the area before it could be declared safe. The items, which included recently manufactured devices for detonating explosives were taken away for a Garda forensic and technical examination. Gardai have been investigating links between dissident republicans based in Dublin and Limerick and have had significant successes in the past year since a new group, terming itself the “New Real IRA” and including former leading members of the Provisional IRA, emerged. The Garda Special Detective Unit has been searching for a dissident arms and explosives manufacturing operation for over a year and the indications are this find marked a major breakthrough …