The protected lesser horseshoe bat has put paid to hopes in the diocese of Killaloe from making a financial killing from the sale of a large parcel of land to interested developers.

Clare County Council yesterday voted through a number of last-minute, contentious rezonings against the recommendations of its acting chief executive, Ger Dollard.

The lives of gravediggers will be endangered by draft by-laws requiring graves to be dug to a depth of 8ft (2.4m), it was claimed yesterday.

The mayor of Clare, Cllr John Crowe (FG), won’t go lonely on his 16,000km round trip to China as five councillors and two officials are to accompany him on the €12,000 trek.

Clare County Council was told last night that it must deliver on its planned twinning arrangement with the 46m-strong Yunnan province in China.

Nearly three-quarters of homes in a Clare seaside village are unoccupied.

The operator of the network of Twist soup kitchens has avoided the threat of jail by shutting down his Ennis operation.

A local authority has told the operator of a network of soup kitchens that he could face a six-month prison term or a large fine if convicted of operating an unauthorised soup kitchen in Ennis.

The buildup to Sunday’s All Ireland is reaching fever pitch in Clare with a fan invasion of Ennis town centre expected for the match.

The operator of a soup kitchen network claimed he was warned not to set up in Ennis, Co Clare, as a woman there allegedly warned him that “she didn’t want any blacks, winos, or Travellers” in the town.

Clare’s county town has put in place additional security measures to ensure there is no re-occurrence of homeless men sleeping in the town’s €70,000 per annum superloos.

A land row between two neighbours will not stop the opening of a new €400,000 walkway along one of the most spectacular stretches of coastline in the country.

Michelle Burke told a crowd of 80 supporters yesterday that she hopes a meeting with Clare County Council will allow her and husband William Buck, and two other householders, move into their homes.

Now the boot is really on the other foot.

A local authority county manager is at loggerheads with the vast majority of his elected members over a housing zoning beside an internationally important site for a rare bat.

IRELAND football manager Giovanni Trapattoni is set to fulfil a promise to the operators of the Cliffs of Moher visitor attraction when he visits the beauty spot this week.

A LOCAL authority is set to spend €175,000 on saving a 400-year-old chimney on top of the oldest building in Ennis.

ENNIS’s unlikely twinning with a sprawling US desert city with a population of more than four million has resulted in two of the town’s top representatives addressing a global forum in China.

THE promoter behind the ill-fated Lord of the Dance event at the Cliffs of Moher has, along with Clare Co Council, been left with a combined loss of a quarter of a million euro.

ONE of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, the Cliffs of Moher will be free of industrial unrest for the remainder of the summer tourist season.

INTERNAL documents show visitors to one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, the Cliffs of Moher, are now paying on average 50% more than what they were paying last year to gain admission to the landmark site.

THE doors of the Loop Head lighthouse overlooking the Atlantic in west Clare were opened to the public yesterday for the first time — 341 years after the first lighthouse was built.

AN industrial dispute at the Cliffs of Moher has resulted in a planned press conference by Ireland soccer manager Giovanni Trapattoni, which was scheduled for the Clare landmark today, being moved elsewhere.

MEMBERS of Ennis Town Council have stopped short of erecting a 12-foot fence around new €450,000 playing facilities in response to continuing anti-social behaviour.

THE Government has approved a raft of new flood defence measures for Ennis, but fears remained yesterday that the proposals are too late for Clare’s county town if more flooding occurs.

Householders were bracing themselves today as gale force winds were expected to batter the country.

THE head of the Catholic Church in Ireland said he wanted to work towards a just resolution in a court case being taken against him by an alleged victim of clerical abuse.

THE Irish Red Cross has raised over €300,000 for its flood relief operations.

PEOPLE living in flood- risk areas in Co Limerick below Parteen Weir were yesterday warned to prepare to evacuate at short notice as more water had to be released through Ardnacrusha ESB power station due to record high levels on Lough Derg.

Coach operators are set to protest at the new rates they will be forced to pay at the new Cliffs of Moher visitor centre which will be officially opened by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today.

LOCAL authorities across the country are being swamped with planning applications by house builders as they try to avoid the cost of levies to be put on homes in the New Year.

THE body of a Dublin woman remained lodged, for a second night, on rocks at the base of the Cliffs of Moher after adverse weather continued to hamper rescue services yesterday.