Tag Archives: RTE

East Clare’s Kate Purcell has made it through to the battle stages on the popular television series The Voice of Ireland. The talented folk singer appeared on Sunday’s episode of the programme where she sang her own version of Rihanna’s hit song We Found Love for the blind audition. She won over two of the four judges on the contest as Kian Egan and Rachael Stevens both turned around to offer the Tulla resident a place on their team. Complemented for stripping the song back by judge Kian Egan, Kate chose to go with the former Westlife singer and will now progress on his team to the battle stages. Kate is the second East Clare contestant to make it through to these stages of the competition, as Scariff resident Sarah McTernan will compete on Rachael Stevens team. By Carol Byrne  

Shannon author and broadcaster, Rachael English’s second novel, Each and Every One, has just hit the bookshops. Rachael’s voice is among the most well-known in the country, as she presents Morning Ireland, and has more than 20 years’ experience on RTÉ Radio, after starting out on Clare FM, when Irish local radio was launched in 1989. Her first novel, Going Back, was quite well received on its release last year, but her nerves were still jangling last week, as she prepares to see how readers and critics react to the latest novel. Even presenting a radio show to hundreds of thousands of listeners isn’t adequate preparation, she said. “I’d love to be one of those people who doesn’t get nervous about these things but I do get far more nervous about book things than I have ever done about anything to do with broadcasting. It’s mad.” She said she feels like people will almost be passing judgement on a part …

William O’Sullivan from Bog Road in Lisdoonvarna is the latest Clareman to strike it rich on the national lottery’s Winning Streak game show on RTE. William, who purchased his winning ticket at Spar in the North Clare town, won €50,000 including a holiday to Turkey on last Saturday night’s show which was co-hosted by Marty Whelan and Sinead Kennedy. Five players from Galway, Leitrim, Kerry, Clare and Louth won prizes to the value of €271,000. The biggest winner on the night was James Behan from Co Louth who won prizes to the value of €78,000.

Clare hurling boss, Davy Fitzgerald took a break from mentoring his players recently to help young Noah Sheedy from Ogonnelloe achieved his goal by overcoming literacy issues. Davy challenged 12-year-old Noah, from Bealkelly to commentate on the recent Clare and Dublin hurling game in Cusack Park for broadcast on the RTÉ One series, The Family Project, to help him develop his confidence and focus to defeat educational issues that affect his life. Noah is about to start secondary school and has difficulty maintaining attention and seeing projects through to the end. To combat this, Davy worked with parents, Paschal and Vanessa to devise a commentary challenge for Noah to complete, which encouraged him to stay focused and realise the importance of taking a project through the various stages to completion. With a little guidance along the way from legendary broadcasters Michéal O’Muircheartaigh and Marty Morrissey, Noah studied the players and statistics and attempted to commentate on the live inter-county hurling …

By CAROL BYRNE CATHAL Goan, former head of RTE, will launch Irish America Reawakening: The Eoin McKiernan Story a book at Foras na Gaeilge in Dublin on Wednesday next. Eoin McKiernan was the son of Clare emigrant Delia Nagle from Lahinch, and founded the Irish American Cultural institute (IACI), which poured millions of dollars into the Irish economy over the latter part of the 20th century. His daughter, Deirdre McKiernan Hetzler has chronicled his life and achievements in a new book entitled Irish America Reawakening: The Eoin McKiernan Story, currently available in Ennis. Eoin’s mother was from Tullygarvin in Lahinch but he was born in New York City, and studied at the Irish Cumman na Gaeilge in New York and won a scholarship to study at Rosmuc. Eoin was a fluent Irish speaker and worked passionately for the language revival. He was on the faculty at the State University of New York and the president of what would become the …

RTÉ Radio mass will be broadcast from Cloughleigh Church, Ennis on Sunday. The mass will feature music and singing from the Scoil Chríost Rí, Cloughleigh School Band. You can listen to the mass on Longwave 252 or the RTÉ Radion Extra App.

SINCE their memorable All-Ireland victory in September, members of the Clare senior hurling team and their management have received many awards. That list was extended on Saturday night when the RTE manager of the year and team of the year accolades were presented to Clare. At a function attended by many of the country’s leading sports personalities from the world of sport, the first award presented was the manager of the year trophy, which went to Davy Fitzgerald, who led Clare to win the Liam MacCarthy Cup in September. Davy was presented with his award by RTE head of sports, Ryle Nugent. A panel of sports writers and commentators choose Davy from a shortlist that included Dublin football manager, Jim Gavin; Tony Ward, the Galway camogie boss and Eamonn Ryan, the Cork ladies football manager. The team of the year was decided by public vote and the Clare hurlers were the popular winners. Team captain Pat Donnellan accepted the award from …