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Come and join us on St Patrick’s Day celebrations in Kilfenora.

First there is Mass in St Fachnan’s Parish Church at 11 am

Then move smartly out to catch the Parade at 12, starting in Vaughans Yard, processing up Main Street and through the Square to the Lisdoonvarna Road and then back again. Let’s see who wins the float prize this year!

Make sure you stop by the front of the Community Hall for the cake sale (and fundraiser). Always a fantastic spread.

 

Then there’s the music. Stop by Nagles Bar from 2pm to hear some of Clare’s finest, with Tola Custy, Noel O’Donoghue, Eddie Moloney and Nigel Stevens. And down at Vaughans Pub there will be a traditional session followed by singer/guitarist Damien Gormley.

Bain taitneamh as!

“Embracing Ireland’s Outdoors” is a National Outdoor Recreation Strategy setting out the government’s ambition to develop and use the land and seascape for exercise in a more coordinated and sustainable way. We all know that this is vital for health and wellbeing, mental and physical.

Clare is one of six counties being used as a pilot to deploy Outdoor Recreation Officers (OROs), dedicated professionals tasked with coordinating and facilitating outdoor recreational plans; this is being administered through Clare Local Sports Partnership, a body dedicated to increasing participation in sports and physical activity.

Jessica O’Keefe is the appointed ORO for Clare. She is launching a consultation process whereby local communities, sports clubs, walking/cycling groups and businesses and tour guides providing activities (for locals and tourists) can contribute to a county plan to enhance opportunities for recreation and exercise.

On Thursday this week (14 November), she will be holding a consultation meeting for North Clare in the Burren Visitor Centre @ 7pm. (There will also be an opportunity to contribute via an online survey.)

This is YOUR opportunity to consider and state what you feel is important to improve recreational activity in our area, on land or on sea and in lakes. Obvious questions include what should be done to improve local opportunities for safe walking, running and cycling, and for indoor exercise too.

So be there at 7pm on Thursday if you want to make your voice heard. The meeting will be in the Kilfenora Céilí Band Exhibition Room – enter by the front door.

 

All those living and/or working in the Kilfenora area are invited to attend a Town Hall meeting for the Kilfenora community on Tuesday 23 April at 7.30pm. Last held in March 2022, such is the significance of this community occasion that all four North Clare County Councillors will be attending.

The meeting will comprise updates on a range of local issues, and an opportunity to discuss these with meeting contributors and our public representatives. These are the main topics.

(i)Road Safety, Transport and Traffic management, Tourism – revealing what is under discussion locally about Kilfenora and its environs, and more broadly for N Clare.

• Following the Kilfenora road safety survey, there have been two extensive meetings between Clare County Council (CCC) and the North Clare Communities Group (NCCG), plus proposed changes to national speed limits. Mary Hawkes-Green, President of the Burren College of Art and Co-chair of the NCCG Road Safety Group, will provide a progress report.
• There will also be an update on discussions with CCC about Kilfenora, including with the most senior delegation of officials in the village for over 20 years, led by Leonard Cleary.

(ii) Burren Visitor Centre – the Manager (Georgie Barnes) will address developments and plans.

(iii) Kilfenora Cathedral – Rev Vicki Lynch, appointed Vicar in 2023 – together with Dr John Treacy, Council Heritage Officer and Edel Barry, local archaeologist – will discuss repairs and usage of the Cathedral, and the graveyard research project for which a grant is being sought.

(iv) Burren Village signage scheme – Carol Gleeson will explain the Unesco Geopark’s new Burren village signage scheme, for which Kilfenora has been the pilot project.

(v) Kilfenora Tidy Towns – an update on the team’s efforts to improve the village’s appearance.

(vi) Sustainable Energy Project – what’s happening next, after preparation of a Kilfenora Masterplan.

(vii) Common Knowledge – co-founder Harrison Gardner will give a brief explanation of the purpose of this new centre for traditional skills; Stephen Hegarty will talk about the Common Ground workshops for community groups in which Kilfenora is represented.

Contributors have been asked to keep their remarks succinct, so that after approx. an hour attendees can talk to the various contributors and councillors in person at various different tables. Please come and join the discussion about our community’s future.

Together with other communities in North Clare, Kilfenora residents are being consulted on road safety. A short questionnaire prepared by Kilfenora Development Community Group can be accessed and downloaded here. The reason for this consultation is simple.

• Problems with traffic speeds and volume, including inappropriate use of small roads because of GPS/Google, are now widely observed in and around Kilfenora, as elsewhere in the Burren area.

• Kilfenora Development Community Group asked Clare CoCo in 2020/1 to make improvements in and round Kilfenora – eg to slow down traffic entering the village – and to create safer spaces on the village outskirts by moving the speed limit signs. A replacement for the Failte Kilfenora sign destroyed by speeding joy riders was also requested. No positive response was received. Other villages have experienced similar difficulties in getting safety concerns addressed.

• The tragic death of Jerry O’Connor in Ballyvaughan has resulted in public meetings – reported on nationally – that have expressed extreme frustration at the lack of action on safety concerns that have been voiced over the last 15 years, and which have become more pressing as a result of increased tourism volumes associated with the Cliffs of Moher.

Public representatives at these meetings – TDs, Senators, Councillors – are now promising that real change must happen. As it happens there is a requirement for a 5 yearly road safety review to be conducted in Clare; also a County Climate Action Plan being developed now needs to respond to a Government/EU demand for lowered emissions and a 20% reduction in traffic volumes by 2030.

Tom Barrett, Chair of the North Clare Communities Group – the new collective organisation for community groups – has already written formally to Clare County Council to initiate discussion on an action plan to meet local concerns.

The North Clare Communities Group has formed a Transport and Road Safety Working Group that will meet for the first time on 5 September to generate a list of agreed priority actions. Kilfenora will be represented in that working group.

It will be helpful to have clear expressions of views from local communities – hence the use of the questionnaire. It can be returned with answers to [email protected], or hand your form in at O’Gormans shop – replies are requested by 5 September (5pm). Some responses will be collected directly in the street. All responses will be treated as anonymous.