Month: October 2008

BUSINESS representatives in the Shannon region are being encour- aged to attend a seminar on business strategy, later this week.

Entitled ‘Hidden Giants: How to lead your business successfully’, the event, organised by Shannon Cham- ber of Commerce, will take place at the Westpark Campus, on Thursday

morning, between 7.30am and 9am.

The seminar is specifically de- signed for business leaders. It will focus on the challenges faced by business leaders in the uncertain economic environment.

Mike Gaffney of LEAP will be the main speaker on the morning. His theories on leadership and manage- ment have galvanised several man- aging directors to take full respon-

sibility for the leadership of their businesses, resulting in significant, positive impact on their organisa- tions’ performances.

He will discuss the specific lead- ership challenges facing Irish busi- nesses and will examine how these challenges can be overcome.

The event is open to members and non-members of Shannon Cham- ber of Commerce. The entry fee for

members is €10 and €15 for non- members. A limited number of plac- es are available so the advice is to book as early as possible, to ensure you secure a place.

Given that this event will take place so soon after last week’s budget, a number of invaluable tips will be provided on the day, as some busi- nesses struggle in the face of the eco- nomic downturn.

THE success enjoyed by the Wolfe Tones na Sionna GAA club on the pitch over the years has resulted in a huge interest in the club’s merchan- dise being made available.

The club has sold merchandise on occasions over the past few years, but now, for the first time, has decided to open a merchandise shop.

The shop is located in the old bar and opens on Thursdays from 8pm

to 9.30pm and on Sundays from 4pm to 6pm.

Managed by Eoghainn Logan, the shop stocks a full range of O’Neill’s sports gear, including polo shirts, t- shirts, hoodies, tracksuits, shorts and ele) .

ST AIDAN’S national school in Shannon is going green – by conserv- ing energy! The school won its first green flag last year and every effort is being made to retain it this year.

Earlier this year the school was honoured when it was praised by the national tidy towns adjudicators, who were impressed by the green flag outside the school.

Now, led by teacher Patrice Hayes and the staff at the school, hopes are high that the green flag can be re- tained.

The school’s focus last year was on litter and waste reduction and this

year the theme is energy.

“Last year we launched our cam- paign to get our first green flag by planting 278 bulbs in our school gar- den, one for each child in the school. This year we launched our campaign in a rather different way,’ said Ms Hayes.

Last Wednesday, the — school stepped back in time, in an effort to save energy. All pupils were encour- aged to walk or cycle to school and if this was not possible, parents and staff were encouraged to pool cars. During a 100-minute period that morning, everybody refrained from turning on lights, kettles, cd players, photocopiers, computers and other

appliances. They also left the heat- ing off for that time and did not use the interactive whiteboards.

“To keep ourselves warm and to use our own energy each class took part in circuit training. A number of fun activity stations were set up in the yard, including hoola hoops and skipping ropes,’ she added.

Later that day, the third class pupils, led by their teachers Ms Clarke and Ms Falvey, demonstrated a number of science experiments, where en- IRAN oer- Fee BUN MO sComOee- BUN MONlo) talon

A series of science experiments were also run on Thursday, where energy was the main theme. These experiments were led by ‘Sue’ of the

Science and Engineering show ‘Steps to engineering’, which was held re- ar hae meson

Last year’s initiative was a major success and surveys carried out at the school produced startling results. They showed that 40 per cent of the rubbish in the bins consisted of pa- per tissues and this was eliminated. Children were also encouraged to bring home their rubbish, as part of plans to reduce rubbish levels. The programme also encouraged pupils to pick up papers around the school before going home each evening. The school is hopeful that last year’s suc- cess in obtaining the green flag can be followed through again this year.

THE MODELS who will be strut- ting their stuff on the catwalk for a fashion fund-raiser next month get out of bed for way less than 5,000 dollars a day.

In fact, the teams, parents and pals of the Smith O’Brien minors would be happy to get €5,000 between them for the efforts on the night.

The fun fashion event is to raise money to help fund the activities of the busy minors, who have 120 play- ers from under-6 up and who have a team in every age bracket in the county competitions.

The fashion extravaganza, which

will be launched tonight and held on Friday, November 14 in the Lakeside Hotel in Ballina is the first run by the committee but, they hope, not the last.

‘The boutiques and shoe shops and the businesses in Killaloe and Balli- na have given us fabulous support”, said committee member, Antoinette RAVEN

Outside of Killaloe, boutiques in Nenagh and Scariff and a depart- ment store in Limerick have all come on board.

“They are supporting us by show- ing clothes on the night and every one of them has donated a spot prize – they’ve been fantastic’, Antoinette

said.

Supervalu has sponsored a cheese and wine reception to get everyone in the mood on the night and a beau- tician, hairdresser and two boutiques have offered their service and two €100 clothes vouchers for a make- over for two lucky people on the vbr al

“There will be boxes around the town in the shops and anyone who would like a makeover has to fill in a form and leave it in the box. We’ll have a draw for two names and they will have things like hair cuts and colouring done in advance with styl- ing, beauty treatments and clothes picked for them on the night when

they will show the ‘before and afters’ at the show’’, said Antoinette. There will be plenty of spot prizes, includ- ing funkiest handbag and wackiest heels

As well as raising money, the com- mittee are hoping that the show will prove to be a great social night and a lot of fun.

‘Because this is the first time we have done anything like this, we have no idea how much money it might raise. €5,000 would be great but we just don’t know yet. The main thing is we hope people will come along and support it and have a great time. It should be a fabulous night’, said Antoinette.

SCARIFF native Margaret Hoey, could teach us all a thing or two about recessions, depressions and upswings.

Margaret celebrated her 105th birth- day, and enjoyed cutting her cake to share with family and friends while doling out a dose of common sense about the budget which was an- nounced the same day.

On hand to help her blow out the candles were five children, 15 grand- children and 11 great-grandchildren.

The secret to her long life, she be- lieves is to “forget about yourself and live away”.

The spry pensioner like watching sport on TV, particularly hurling and rugby and she keeps abreast of cur- KS) 01 MEAN BEAD BuCe

Margaret’s take on one the harshest budgets in her lifetime is that there was too much money being flung around anyway.

Margaret has lived through world events that most have only read about in the history books, including the hard times that the State suffered

during the Anglo-Irish economic war of the 1930s. Born in 1903, the year St Patrick’s Day was made a na- tional holiday, she has lived through the sinking of the Titanic, the end of British rule in most of Ireland, the roll-out of electricity, two world wars, the advent of television, eight Irish Presidents and the rise and de- cline of the Celtic Tiger.

The native of Poulnagower, Scar- iff, believes that much of the coun- try’s current woes stem from the fact that “everyone is too well paid..the salaries and wages are too high for a

small country and the borrowing is too much for people these days with their big empty homes. We just can’t afford it. The good days didn’t last long, it wasn’t permanent,” she said.

Sr Christine Murphy of the Carrig- oran nursing home where Margaret is currently resident, described her as “‘a true lady and an inspiration to Oe

TULLA fundraiser extraordinaire, Kitty Leyden, is celebrating having hit the €100,000 fundraising mark by taking off for South Africa to- morrow to walk miles in the blister- ing sun to help sick children.

72 year old Kitty – who has raised the massive amount for charities over the last 25 years – says she is going to hang up her walking shoes after this trip.

But she admits, she’s said that be- fore!

Kitty will walk 60 kilometres in

Capetown to bring in money to fund equipment and research in Crumlin Children’s hospital in Dublin.

‘It’s bad enough to get sick in your 50’s or 60’s – at least you’ve lived and done things. But when you see these poor sick children, who have seen nothing of life yet.

‘The money people give so gener- ously is needed to keep these chil- dren alive’, said Kitty.

Kitty has raised €9,400 for this trip alone but her one regret about the trip is that she “can’t fly from Shannon – I have to go to Dublin’.

In her time, Kitty has raised money

for numerous causes through mara- thon step dancing, walking, organis- ing music sessions and even shavea- thons, one of which is coming up in December.

‘People and businesses have been sO very, very good to me. They’ve given me pennies when that was all they had and they all mount up and they’ve given me huge amounts as well. I remember when I started rais- ing money for Crumlin, a man from Tulla came up to me in the street and handed me €300 – I ran after him, I thought he had made a mistake, but he said no, that was what he was giv-

ing me.”

But even while she says she’s plan- ning to hang up her shoes, the deter- mined Tulla woman is plotting more fun and fund-generators.

She is organising a night in Novem- ber in Cois na hAbhanna in Ennis, where the Kilfenora Ceili Band have offered their services free of charge and the above-mentioned shaveathon will see several hairy sons of the soil have their limbs shaved.

“It’s all good fun and the important thing to remember are the people who need every penny we can raise”, SJ aTomcy BOR

AS the Ballyvaughan/Fanore Walk- ing Club prepare to bring their year to a close at this weekend’s AGM, members have been looking back at one of the most busy and successful years in the club’s history.

From Las Vegas to Ben Nevis, the club have taken on some of the world’s most challenging walks in the year the culminated in the staging of Clare’s first ever walking marathon.

The walking year started back in November of 2007, with a new pro- gramme of weekly walks and a trip by some of the club members to Las Vegas, where they took part in the

Las Vegas Marathon. While there the group also walked the Grand Canyon and visited Monument Valley and Navajo Tribal Park in Arizona.

In April, club chairperson, Kevin McCormack, led a group of mem- bers on the challenging Camino De Santiago pilgrim route in Spain. The 550 mile trek over the Pyrenees saw walkers move through snow, rain and blistering sunshine until they reached Santiago after 29 days of walking.

Back in Ireland however, the other member were not idle. Weekly walks around the Burren proved very suc- cessful with the club also venturing farther afield to the Aran Islands, Tory, Mt Errigal in Donegal, Croagh

Patrick and Carrauntuohill.

Inspired by the this success 26 club members decided to take on Ben Ne- vis, the highest mountain in Great Britain and Ireland, as the groups last challenge of the year.

Led on this occasion by Gerry Rei- dy, all members of the club reached the top of one of the most challeng- ing walks in northern Europe.

During the year club members took part in a marathons in Cork, Galway, Longford, Inverness, Miami, Vegas and Dublin as well as the first ever Clare Burren Marathon Challenge.

This marathon, organised by the club, attracted 1,000 participants to the Burren to take part in the big-

gest event organised by the club to date. It attracted walkers and runners from all over Ireland, as well as par- ticipants from UK, Norway, Nether- lands and USA.

The club have just announced that they will be staging the marathon again next year with May 23 already earmarked for the event.

The Ballyvaughan Fanore Walking Club will host it’s AGM on October 25 in the Conference Centre, Bur- ren Coast Hotel, Ballyvaughan from ool] 0) 008

Anyone interesting in joining the club should contact www.bally- vaughanfanorewalkingclub.com for more details.

DESPITE an ancient tradition of us- ing herbal medicine in north Clare, the area has been without a practic- ing herbalist for many years now. All that is about to change however with the arrival of herbalist Lisa Guinan, who has just launched a new practice in Ennistymon.

A Dubliner by birth, Lisa has strong connections with the north of the county and will join the growing team of alternative healers working out of St Bridget’s Homeopathy and Healing Centre on Main Street.

‘IT have always had a great connec- tion with Clare. I have two sisters

living down here for years so I have been coming down here for years. It’s been in my mind to come here for years so I figured that now was the time to take the plunge,” she said.

“I am herbalist and I also do naturopathy. There is no-one else practicing as a herbalist in north Clare, in fact I think that I may be the only herbalist practicing in all of Clare at the moment. I work out of St Bridget’s Healing Centre in Ennisty- mon along with a whole host of other natural healers.”

A qualified herbalist and naturo- path, Lisa is registered with The Irish Register of Herbalists and the Association of Naturopathic Practi-

tioners.

She is also affiliated with The Na- tional Herbal Council responsible for the quality and standardisation of herbalist practitioners in the coun- try. “With herbalism you are treating the whole person and not the illness. So someone might come into me with a skin problem, but I wont just look skin because the root problem could be with the liver perhaps, they might have too much toxins in the blood,” she continued.

“So because we are treating the whole person we can always make an improvement, no matter what is wrong. It can also be good to treat

people who don’t have any specific illness, they just don’t have much en- ergy or are feeling lethargic.

‘They may have some smaller di- gestive problems that we could help with. I treat people by giving them a herbal formula. A patient will come in and I will spend an hour or more with them going through their his- re ays

“Depending on what they say I will put together a liquid herbal formula for them. These formulas are unique to each person and targeted to give them exactly what they need.”

For more information contact Lisa at 0877531023 or lisahar@gmail. one

INAGH man Flan Garvey will this week become the first person ever to obtain a degree from a college that he is also in charge of. Besides being a member of Clare County Council, Garvey is chairman of the govern- ing body of Tralee IT and will this week be conferred with a degree for his research work on the Inagh and Kilnamona parish.

Flan has just completed a 400 page thesis which is the culmination of 3 years research into the long and proud history of the area.

‘“‘T have huge a whole host of sources in compiling this information. I have trawled through the national archives in Dublin and have also been through the records left by the six schools which used to operate in the parish,” said the Fianna Fail councillor.

“We had two creameries in the parish long ago which are now both gone. Those creameries tell the story of the parish in a very interesting way. There used to be 300 farmers in Inagh creamery alone in the 1940s, now the creamery is gone and there are only three farmers left in the area who are producing milk.”

As well as utilising a myriad histor- ical and biographical records on the locality, Flan also conducted a series of interviews with elderly people liv- bOTcaB DOO atomOr-DuLIOE

“The research goes back very far. I studied a soil analysis taken in the parish which traces how the geogra- phy of the area has developed over the centuries. So, unless you go back and talk to God you can’t go back any farther than that,” he continued.

“I tracked the history of the vari- ous invaders who came into this part of Clare and the history of the monks who came to Inagh back in

the 1640’s. I have interview old peo- ple and young people about different things which have gone on in the par- ish. I interviewed an 98 years old man last week to get his memories of the area.” Once he graduates, Flan hopes to publish the book as the definitive history of the parish of Inagh.

“Once I finish up the thesis I think I will take a break for it for awhile but after that I do intend to publish it,’ he Leyslw pel eterem

“I don’t have any exact time frame or even a name in mind yet but it would be great to publish it in due course.”

SIX years of voluntary service and dedication has seen students at St Flannan’s College raise €50,000 for vulnerable children in Calcutta.

The money was raised for the HOPE foundation, a Cork based charity that works to improve the lives of chil- dren living on the streets and in the slums of the Indian city.

St Flannan’s association with HOPE began in 2002. Since then and with the establishment of the Calcutta Youth Project, students and teachers have travelled with HOPE to work with in Calcutta.

In March 2007 two teachers, Shona Cahill and Liam Ashe, who had pre- viously worked in Calcutta, decided to bring a group of students to work with the Missionaries of Charity

The latest trip took place in Feb- ruary when four students (Stephen

Garry, Lucy Brannock, Ian Corbett and Lisa Grogan) and two teachers (Myriam Black and Elaine Dunne) travelled to Calcutta with the HOPE Foundation to see the work of the or- ganisation first hand.

In Calcutta, the group visited or- phanages and saw vocational train- ing projects.

One student described visits the group paid to some of the cities 5,500 slum area.

“Ultaganda Slum located in the center of Calcutta, is home to ap- proximately 6,000 people who live on an area the size of a soccer field. It was truly frightening and shock- ing to learn that the majority of these families live on 2000 rupees a month, the equivalent of €40. That means they live on just over €1 per day. The adults of this slum are em- ployed as van pullers, rag pickers and maids”.

The trip ended with a visit to the St. Flannans College/ HOPE/ PBK cricket coaching center. 60 children from the Kalighat area and Kid- dapore Slum travel here to train once or twice a week under qualified cricket coaches. After training the children also receive a meal.

Participating in the cricket coach- ing sessions could also provide an avenue for the skilled players to train as cricket coaches and find employ- ment as coaches in schools or cricket oils

The money raised by St. Flannan’s College pays for the coaching fees, hiring the cricket field and also pro- vides uniforms and playing equip- ment.

Preparations are already underway for next year’s Calcutta adventure. On Saturday October 25 St. Flan- nan’s College is running a concert entitled “A night of HOPE for the

street children in Calcutta” in the Friary, Ennis.

There will be performances by Gary Shannon, Michael and Fionnu- ala Rooney, Rachael Mullaly, Dean Power, The Ennis Gospel Choir and The Ennis Youth Choir performing. The concert will start at 8.30 pm and tickets cost €15 each. Tickets can be purchased from Veritas, Mary Kelly newsagents, the Cathedral parish of- fice and the school office in St. Flan- nans. All money raised will be do- nated to the Hope foundation and the Calcutta Youth Project.