Tag Archives: Tulla

NONE of the pubs in Tulla offer food, so last Monday afternoon was the first time anyone got to order a pint in the village since March. Declan Hogan has been working at The Powerhouse since it reopened at 4pm on Monday and he says things have been quite busy since then. “There were about a dozen people in before six o’clock and there would have been three to four dozen more over the rest of the night. We’d have had about 40 at one stage, we’d have capacity for 55 to 60,” he says. It was an exceptionally large crowd for a rural pub on a Monday night, as people were keen to have a drink after months without going to their local. There was also a fairly good Tuesday night, he said. “We had about a dozen. On a normal Tuesday night you might only have half that.” Declan is expecting quite a good weekend. “We are, between …

A DRAMATIC lighting installation will create a blaze of colour on the windswept hill of Tulla for Culture Night this Friday. Locally-based artist Tim Humphries is the mastermind behind the LightsUP installation, which will be live-streamed on Tulla Tidy Towns Facebook page and on culturenight.ie, from 8-9pm. It will involve random LED lights illuminating the high crosses in the graveyard and creating what Tim describes as “a connection between heavens and earth”. “I’ve been working with light installations for over 20 years,” Tim explained. “For one of those, I projected light onto the outside of the old Carlton Cinema building in Limerick. In others, for the EVA International, I would have created words through light in public places.” This time, there are no words involved, but a dramatic illumination of Tulla graveyard’s striking high crosses. “I have been transfixed by the location,” Tim said. “I have put in around 30 LED lights and will have six or seven LED torches …

A TULLA-based oncology nurse, and ovarian cancer survivor, is urging women not to ignore the warning signs of gynaecological cancers. Anne Murphy, who is a member of the team at Clare Cancer Support, said that research shows many women are not aware of symptoms and don’t seek medical advice in time. “Early diagnosis is so important for a good prognosis,” Ms Murphy said. “I myself was diagnosed with early stage ovarian cancer in 2012.” The call comes ahead of World Gynaecologic Oncology Day on Sunday, when a number of buildings, including The Rock of Cashel and The National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) will light up in purple. “Clare Cancer Support are delighted to participate in this World Awareness Day,” Ms Murphy said, which is about raising awareness of gynaecological cancers, cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal and vulval. Womens’ gynaecological cancers are poorly represented in the public arena and this needs to change. Most gynaecological cancers have symptoms but research has …

KEEPING spirits up in challenging times is the aim two special, socially-distanced concerts coming up in Tulla next week. One Tuesday and Thursday, September 15 and 17, during Culture Week, Songs of Sanctuary will take place at St Peter and Paul’s Church. “What we want to do is to give people an opportunity to dress up and come out for the evening,” said one of the organisers, Joan McNamara. “While many of us involved are members of the Tulla Parish Choir, this isn’t a night of religious music. We’re grateful for the use of the church, because we need the space for social distancing. We have five wonderful singers who have picked two songs each and we five musicians. Our singers have picked songs from the likes of Christy Moore, Ennio Morricone, Christy Hennessy, Kate Rusby and more.” The Songs of Sanctuary idea has its origins in the weeks of the lockdown when Joan and fellow singers wanted to show …

A SPATE of thefts from graves in Tulla has sparked outrage in the local community, and an appeal for vigilance from the authorities. Six incidents have been reported to Gardaí in recent months, with the latest taking place between 9pm last Thursday (September 3) and 1pm on Friday. A number of grave ornaments, including lanterns, were removed from graves, in a theft which has been condemned by Gardaí. “These items have relatively small monetary value, but have a huge sentimental value to the families involved,” said Inspector Adrian Queeney of Killaloe Station. “These thefts cause huge distress and I would appeal to anyone with information to come forward.” Inspector Queeney said that there is no suggestion, at this point, that any particular family or individual is being targetted. “The thefts seem to be random. We don’t suspect that there’s any issue of targetting, but these thefts are now something that seems to be ongoing and we would appeal for anyone …

TUESDAY evening’s decision to keep pubs which don’t serve food, was bad news for the vast majority of rural Clare’s publicans. Many such pubs closed for the last time during the recession and among those still standing, there are fears that Covid-19 could be the coup de grace. “You’d be afraid customers would stop coming to pubs, the whole thing could change.” warned John Quinlivan of the Honk in Newmarket on Fergus on Wednesday. Allowing only a select few pubs to open their doors may actually be counterproductive, giving too great a concentration of people, he believes. “I think it’s actually more dangerous. We were away for a weekend and there were only two pubs that did food in this area, and everyone was gravitating to these two places and funnelling into them. Between people inside trying to come out, people trying to get in and people trying to book, there was a whole heap of people at the one …

FIVE Clare towns and villages have received just under €115,000 as part of a new Government scheme to help them adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic. They are among 106 towns and villages across the country that will benefit immediately from €2.8 million in funding under the enhanced Town and Village Renewal Scheme. The local areas that will benefit from the initial tranche of €114,274 in funding are: Tulla: Social distancing community meeting space (€13.050) Tuamgraney: Improvements to East Clare Memorial Park, including footpaths, seating and boundary wall (€25,000) Kilkee: Reconfiguration of playground layout to allow for social distancing (€22,295) Carrigaholt: Provision of outdoor tables and seating with temporary awnings (€24,229) Killaloe: Provision of measures to promote social distancing in main pedestrian areas (€29,700) Welcoming the funding, Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey said the money will help communities to shop, socialise and work safely as they adapt to the post-Covid reality. “It is vitally important that we see an increase in …

JUST 24 years of age, Diarmaid Murphy must be one of the county’s youngest publicans. He runs a venerable establishment, Flan McArthur’s, near to the top of the windswept hill of Tulla. It was just last October that he took over the pub, and it will be at least a few more weeks before he pulls another pint, with the move to stage 4 now put back until August 10, at least. “I thought we would be back some bit anyway, I was kinda gearing up for it, but I suppose it was never going to happen,” says Diarmaid. He feels that the August Bank Holiday was a stumbling block, with the numbers that would have been moving around had the restrictions been eased in advance. Now he wonders if he will even get to open his doors on the new target date. “It’s hard to know. They’re putting such an emphasis on opening schools, if they open the pubs …