Tag Archives: scariff

Nine East Clare community and Tidy Towns groups have benefitted from a once-off funding allocation, totaling €34,000, under the Public Area Enhancement Scheme, to improve their own locality. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is providing 75% of the finance, with the remainder being matched by Clare County Council. Scariff Community Council’s project to carry out improvement works to Riverside Park, and Sixmilebridge Development Association/Tidy Towns’ proposal to develop a Slí na Sláinte Walk Route have benefitted from most of the funding available, each receiving €6,000. Further to this, two East Clare groups will receive €5,000 under the fund. They include Kilkishen Development Ltd, which aims to develop a Kilkishen Castle Bog Walk, while Tuamgraney Development Association will also benefit from this funding, which will be used to carry out improvement works to the approach road to Tuamgraney from Bodyke. Aistear Iniscealtra Mountshannon have been awarded €3,000 in funding to upgrade the public park, while, in a …

EAST Clare Community Co-op has now opened the first half of their new LEADER funded training and enterprise kitchen, known as Sustenance. The initiative has been four years in the making with the idea being formed in 2010 and leading to the completion of a feasibility study, drawing up plans, consulting the Environmental Health Office on best practice, researching energy efficient measures and getting all relevant permissions to build it. The building and equipping is the final phase and the micro enterprise unit will open after Easter for bookings. The community kitchen is already attracting visitors from all over Ireland interested in the facility and who are looking to build something similar in their own communities. Recently visitors from North Kilkenny, who are involved in gardening and social enterprise projects through the Castlecomer demesne, were impressed with this community led project. Other visitors included Duncan Stewart who paid an impromptu visit to the facility and was very impressed.  “He gave …

TOPPING the play bill at this year’s Clare Drama Festival in the confined section was Skibbereen Theatre Society’s production of No Romance, while Bradán Players performance of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf took first place in the open section. The results at the 67th annual Clare Drama Festival were revealed when the adjudicator, Tony Rushforth gave his views on the performances held in Scariff over the past two weeks. There were two Clare award winners in the confined section with second place going to the East Clare based Sliabh Aughty Drama Group for their production of Unforgiven by John McDwyer. Meanwhile Doonbeg Drama Group took the third spot with their performance of Cavalcaders by Billy Roche. Second place in the open competition went to Nenagh Players for their staging of The Outgoing Tide by Bruce Graham, while Kilmeen Drama Group took third place with the Enda Walsh play The Walworth Farce.

THE stage has been set for the 67th annual Clare Drama Festival, which gets underway in Scariff next week, showcasing some of the best amateur drama in Ireland. Founded in 1946 the festival has gone from strength to strength taking place over the course of ten nights from Thursday March 20 to Saturday March 29 at Scariff Community College Hall. Opening this year’s festival is Fr Brendan Quinlivan PP Scariff who is no stranger to the Scariff stage. Fr Quinlivan picked up a promising young actor award in his teenage years at the drama festival and has appeared on numerous occasions with the local Sliabh Aughty Drama Group. Festival chairman, Alan Sparling says this is a unique opportunity to enjoy ten very different plays, and this year promises the audience in Scariff eight completely new productions to this local stage. Opening night sees Sliabh Aughty Drama Group present Unforgiven by John McDwyer, which earned them their first win on this …

ONE of East Clare’s leading young sportsmen died in a traffic accident on the M7, near Roscrea on Sunday night.  Eighteen-year-old Barry Nash from Tobarnagoth, Scariff was a noted  hurler and handball player, excelling in both codes. Barry was an All-Ireland and world champion in handball and a key member the Scariff senior hurling side. A brother of international handballer, Diarmuid, Barry was travelling back to college in Dublin with three friends, when the accident happened. Barry’s death has caused great sadness in the East Clare community. He reposed at his home and his funeral mass will take place at Scariff Church on Thursday, after which he will be buried at the New Cemetery, Moynoe.        

  All Ireland Junior Camogie Club Final Myshall (Carlow) 3-9 Scariff/Ogonnelloe 0-8 WHILE Myshall were deserved winners the scoreline is deceiving, as they only led the East Clare women by 1-8 to 0-8 after a minute of injury time. It was still possible that the East Clare side could force a replay, but the Carlow girls had very late goals from the outstanding Ciara Quirke and Olivia Jordan, and Quirke then pointed to leave the gap at ten points. Overall they were the better side, but there is no way that Scariff/Ogonnelloe were ten points a poorer team. The Clare side had fine performances from the likes of Susan Vaughan and particularly Mairéad Scanlon, but didn’t quite have the same quality as the Carlow women, who also won the title in 2012. The most noticeable tactic of the day was Myshall’s mass withdrawal of players into defensive areas, particularly in the second half. At times there was just one attacker …

IRISH Seed Savers Association has had to implement three redundancies and cut staff hours by almost half, as a result of funding cuts it has sustained this year from a number of sources that used to fund the national charity. The organisation’s project manager Lisa Duncan confirmed to The Clare Champion that in recent weeks the charity had to cut staff and staff hours due to financial constraints. She explained the charity relies on grant aid to survive and as it had sustained cuts to grant aid this year from a number of different organisations, it had to implement the cuts. On the back of this, it has launched an appeal to ensure the survival of the organisation and to enable it to continue its conservation work. According to the organisation, it received grant aid from the Department of Agriculture for the past number of years to help support it in saving Ireland’s agricultural heritage. Projects such as the creation …

By Dan Danaher A SENIOR local authority engineer has revealed he was almost knocked down in Scariff recently because the driver felt he didn’t have to stop at a stop sign. Concern about a small number of motorists who ignore some of new traffic-calming measures introduced last August in the East Clare town, as part of the new one-way system, has been expressed by senior executive engineer, Hugh McGrath. Mr McGrath ruled out calls from Councillors Pat Hayes and Joe Cooney for an immediate review to iron out some “teething problems” following the recent introduction of the long-awaited new traffic management system. Instead, Mr McGrath pledged to look at this issue again next January or February, when about six months would have elapsed. He also expressed scepticism as to whether Clare County Council could do anymore in terms of providing additional signage, as suggested by Councillor Cooney. “The council can’t plan for people who are not opening their eyes while …