Tag Archives: Strand Line

“Kilkee and all that lies about it offers only ordinary happiness, a most precious thing that any child can enjoy or any old man. But on the right day in West Clare, under the right light, that ordinary happiness takes on an immaculacy, an innocent radiance which lifts it near to what we mean by heavenly delight.” (Kate O’Brien) One searches in vain to aptly describe Kilkee in winter; the best I can come up with is ‘an experience with a difference’. The month of February usually spells the beginning of, or at least the onset of, spring. However, Sunday last, February 5, certainly defied that assumption. I awoke to the sound of John Bowman on radio followed by Sunday Miscellany, which has remained an enduring part of my Sunday morning line-up for almost 40 years now, together with that all-important, Sunday morning fry. When I woke, I had promised myself a walk over towards the Diamond Rocks prior to …

THREE weeks after Storm Darwin resulted in serious damage to the seawall and the Strand Line in Kilkee, the damage is still evident on the seafront. The issue was raised at this week’s West Clare Electoral Area meeting by Councillor Patrick Keane, who asked for a report on what he called “the sinking Strand Line road,” in Kilkee. Loop Head Tourism chairman and Kilkee business man, Cillian Murphy has also expressed concern at the state of the Strand Line, comparing it to a war zone. “I’m standing here looking at a hole that has been dug out of the pavilion in front of the Esplanade. It must be 30 feet by 40 feet. There was a small breach but the sea is after widening the breach and sucking everything out from underneath it. A load of concrete would have shuttered up the front of it and prevented further damage,” Cillian Murphy suggested. “From the esplanade down as far as the …