The Clare Champion

20/12/2024

SHANNON Athletics Club will host a GOAL Mile at its grounds on St Stephen's Day at 11am, with participants doing two laps of the club's new perimeter track. Rob Stephen is one of the organisers and he said it is good to support a charity that helps the developing world. "Having seen first hand the living conditions of many of our fellow human beings across a number of African countries especially, I think we have a duty to try and do a small bit to alleviate that suffering, especially as our lives are so comfortable in comparison," he said....

SHANNON Athletics Club will host a GOAL Mile at its grounds on St Stephen’s Day at 11am, with participants doing two laps of the club’s new perimeter track. Rob Stephen is one of the or…

20/12/2024

U-21a Hurling Championship Final Scariff-Ogonnelloe 3-10 Feakle-Killanena 0-11 Never has the power of the half-time team talk come hurling home like it did in the slow-burning county final that was this East Clare day in Tulla on Saturday afternoon. It must have come from the toes up. All because, when the Scariff-Ogonnelloe players trundled towards the dressing room for what was surely a dressing down to buoy them up for what was needed to win this county final, as they went they could have been forgiven for thinking that it just wasn’t going to be their day....

U-21a Hurling Championship Final Scariff-Ogonnelloe 3-10 Feakle-Killanena 0-11 Never has the power of the half-time team talk come hurling home like it did in the slow-burning county final that was…

20/12/2024

Three North Clare communities have been getting their hands dirty in recent weeks, helping Ennistymon nature charity Hometree to reforest the country. Older members of the North Clare Ukrainian community, a local women’s Traveller group and service users at the Ennistymon Community Hospital have each been doing their bit to help restore Ireland’s native woodlands. Based in North Clare, Hometree works to establish and conserve permanent native woodland in Ireland, with a focus on native temperate rain forests on the west coast....

Three North Clare communities have been getting their hands dirty in recent weeks, helping Ennistymon nature charity Hometree to reforest the country. Older members of the North Clare Ukrainian com…

20/12/2024

A new fundraising campaign has been set up for a Bridgetown midwife, who has been diagnosed with a rare type of brain and spine cancer. Rachel Whitehead (31) is a newly qualified midwife, having trained at the University of Limerick and the Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital. On Monday, the mother-of-two started a six-week programme of intensive radiotherapy at the Bon Secours Cork....

A new fundraising campaign has been set up for a Bridgetown midwife, who has been diagnosed with a rare type of brain and spine cancer. Rachel Whitehead (31) is a newly qualified midwife, having tr…

20/12/2024

CLARE’S newly opened county library has had “phenomenal usage” since opening with an average of up to 1,000 visits a day. The new €17 million state-of-the art county library and cultural centre, the De Valera Library and Súil Gallery, was officially opened last month by the Taoiseach Simon Harris (FG). Details of the numbers using the new library were revealed at a meeting of the Ennis Municipal District where a call was made by Councillor Mary Howard (FG)for the service to be open on Sundays....

CLARE’S newly opened county library has had “phenomenal usage” since opening with an average of up to 1,000 visits a day. The new €17 million state-of-the art county library and cultural centre, th…

20/12/2024

AROUND the county it is a hectic time for retail, and while the busiest days are yet to come, there are some positive indicators that it will be a happy Christmas for traders. On Monday, Kacper Zybert, the manager of Shannon Town Centre, said that footfall has been up on 2023. “This week last year the footfall was 51,000. This week we had 60,298 people coming in through the doors,” he said....

AROUND the county it is a hectic time for retail, and while the busiest days are yet to come, there are some positive indicators that it will be a happy Christmas for traders. On Monday, Kacper Zyb…

19/12/2024

The stories of some of Ireland's greatest boxers have been told in a new book by the Clare Champion's Owen Ryan, entitled Fight of My Life, now available on Amazon.
It features interviews with giants of the sport such as Billy Walsh, Andy Lee, Michael Carruth, Wayne McCullough, Barry McGuigan, Kenneth Egan, Paddy Barnes and Deirdre Gogarty.
Many of the fighters speak in detail about their personal lives and formative experiences as well as the most memorable fights of their career.

Billy Walsh must have been on cloud nine as he left the National Stadium on a spring night. Defeating Patsy Ormond on points, Mr Walsh had just won his first National Senior title at Light Welterwe…

19/12/2024

‘We’ll regroup over the next few weeks and come back fighting’ - Eoin Powell

Defeat is a difficult enough pill to swallow at any stage but while Sarsfields were unquestionably the better side on Sunday, the fact that Truagh Clonlara didn’t play to their full potential or pe…

19/12/2024

A FUNDRAISING effort in support of a Clare teenager who suffered life changing injuries last month has emerged as Ireland’s top GoFundMe campaign for 2024. More than €670,000 has been raised so far through the online fundraising page set up in support of Joe Slattery from Corofin who on November 21, while training with his local GAA team, suffered injuries which are expected to necessitate lifelong care....

A FUNDRAISING effort in support of a Clare teenager who suffered life changing injuries last month has emerged as Ireland’s top GoFundMe campaign for 2024. More than €670,000 has been raised so far…

19/12/2024

If the recent General Election didn’t already reiterate it, Wednesday’s Clare GAA Annual Convention definitely hit home that every vote counts following an agonising minimum defeat to St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield’s proposed regrading bye law change. The extensive motion (see below) that looked to introduce a new adult championship grading system of each club naming 19 players per level and dispense with the current structure of applying for five annual regrades per adult championship grade initially appeared to be resoundingly carried by a 46 to 31 vote....

If the recent General Election didn’t already reiterate it, Wednesday’s Clare GAA Annual Convention definitely hit home that every vote counts following an agonising minimum defeat to St Joseph’s D…

19/12/2024

Who doesn’t want their children to have more than they had? It’s one of the fundamentals of parenting: successive generations all doing their best to make sure their children enjoy a life more comfortable than their own ... up to a point Generally speaking, parents who are in a position to help their children don’t want to simply wave a magic wand and make everything perfect....

Who doesn’t want their children to have more than they had? It’s one of the fundamentals of parenting: successive generations all doing their best to make sure their children enjoy a life more comf…

19/12/2024

Clare woman Laura O’Connell has qualified for the first-ever Formula Woman Nations Cup final taking place in Dubai, May 2025. An impressive top 20 finish at the recent qualifying rounds in Dubai guaranteed O’Connell a spot on the starting grid where she will compete as part of a fifty-strong field of racing drivers from across the globe. The 25-year-old is one of only two Irish women set to compete at the prestigious event, joining Hanna Celsie....

Clare woman Laura O’Connell has qualified for the first-ever Formula Woman Nations Cup final taking place in Dubai, May 2025. An impressive top 20 finish at the recent qualifying rounds in Dubai gu…

19/12/2024

THERE was poor compliance with the recent red alert issued around Storm Darragh, the December meeting of Clare County Council heard. Councillor Mary Howard (FG) said she was amazed that so many people had been driving during it. “The one thing that really resonated with me on the Friday when the storm had really kicked off was the amount of traffic on the road....

THERE was poor compliance with the recent red alert issued around Storm Darragh, the December meeting of Clare County Council heard. Councillor Mary Howard (FG) said she was amazed that so many peo…

19/12/2024

Inside this week’s Clare Champion, which is in shops now...

- Lives put at risk as red weather warnings ignored, hears Council;
- Banner businesses feeling festive Christmas trading bump;
- Clare hearts open for Joe Slattery fundraising effort;
- End of an era: O’Connor’s Newsagents to close its doors on Christmas Eve;
- It’s Ryan on the double for Council co-options;
- North Clare pupils spread festive cheer to nursing home residents;
- Killaloe bypass to cost €88m – the most expensive in the country;
- Party time in Kilrush as Town Hall clock is finally repaired;
- Gardaí get in spirit of Christmas with annual dinner delivery;
- RNLI ready to answer the call of the season;
- Opposition to bridge pedestrianisation plans;
- Clare shoppers urged to think ‘circular’ this Christmas;
- Champion photographer John Kelly features in first Súil Gallery exhibition;
- Daisy’s Dogalogue: An amazing run up to Christmas in The Cotswolds;
- In Focus: Kilmihil GAA ‘Light Up Your Wagon’; Annual St Flannan’s College Chapel Carol Service;
- Hurling: Photo gallery looking back at Clare’s All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final victory;
- Soccer: Bittersweet Oscar win for six-goal Banner boys;
- Hurling: Decisive second-half display seals U-21A title for Scariff/Ogonnelloe;
- Camogie: Five Sars display ends Truagh Clonlara dream;
- Boxing: Champion reporter Owen Ryan gets boxers to put down their guard in new book.

16/12/2024

THE former Shannon Shamrock Hotel at Bunratty has been disused for years, but there are now plans for a major new development on the site. An application has been submitted to Clare County Council by Crescent House Limited seeking permission for a 67 unit housing development with a convenience retail store as well as six retail/office units there. The application also says that the existing conference centre building is to be retained and there will be another planning application in the future for a 76 bed hotel with 14 short stay apartments....

16/12/2024

HUNDREDS of people have signed a petition in support of keeping a mural in Ennis which was created in response to the ongoing crisis in Palestine. There are worries the mural may have to be removed after the owner of the building it was painted on received a letter from Clare County Council seeking evidence of planning permission. The local authority has confirmed to The Clare Champion it had received complaints related to an alleged “unauthorised mural development”....

HUNDREDS of people have signed a petition in support of keeping a mural in Ennis which was created in response to the ongoing crisis in Palestine. There are worries the mural may have to be removed…

16/12/2024

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16/12/2024

AN emotional Councillor Antoinette Baker Bashua called for people with critical illnesses to be fast tracked for medical cards at this week’s meeting of Clare County Council. She said the fact that people are forced to struggle with bureaucracy even as they battle very serious illness is not right. The Fianna Fáil councillor said she had first hand experience of how difficult it is to get what is required....

AN emotional Councillor Antoinette Baker Bashua called for people with critical illnesses to be fast tracked for medical cards at this week’s meeting of Clare County Council. She said the fact that…