Ennis businesses say they're hopeful that the forthcoming celebration of Muhammad Ali's visit to the town can spark the beginning of a major festival

Events are to be held at the beginning of next month, marking the one year anniversary of the boxer's visit, and hopes have been expressed that an annual event can be held in the spirit of that day.

The town Council has ruled out a 'Muhammad Ali' festival due to naming and image rights, but say they are inviting suggestions from the public for events to be held in the coming years.

Clare VEC has been granted funding to provide training courses for over 100 unemployed people in the county.

As part of funding announced under the fund, 105 people are to receive training in a number of areas, including Self Employment, Customer Service,environment, renewable energy and Tourism.

Each of the courses will be FETAC approved and will range from levels 3-5

A total of 12 million euro has announced under this scheme, which aims to support education and training programmes for some 5,400 unemployed people

West Clare residents opposed to a 2 million euro wind energy project in West Clare will set out their grounds for appeal this week.

On Friday Clare County Council gave the green light for the construction of 28 wind turbines on the slopes of Mount Callan with 300 jobs set to be created during the development phase.

The project  by West Clare Renewable Energy (WCRE) Ltd will be the largest community owned wind farm in Ireland.

Up to 25 top executives from US technology firms are headed to the MidWest later this year for the third annual 'Silicon Valley Comes to Ireland' event.

The event begins on November 15th, and will see the leading business figures participate in a number of events, including a series of mentoring workshops for companies in the region

There will also be a gala dinner, at which the guest speaker will be Dr. Craig Barrett, former Intel Chairman.

Over 4000 workers in the MidWest received training as part of the Skillsnet program in 2009.

The annual report from the state-funded body has shown that it facilitated the training and upskilling of over 40,000 workers nationally by engaging with companies, and providing job-specific training.

The total cost to the state of this program was 14.5 million euro, while employers a further 7.7 million to fund the training.

Carl Blake is a Senior Programme Manager with Skillnets  - he says feedback has shown that this program is beneficial for companies

Good news for Clare tenants as rents across the county are continuing to fall .

New quarterly figures from property website Daft.ie reveals that the rental market here dropped 2.2 percent between April and June .

The average rent in Clare now stands at 613 euro compared to 696 in Limerick City and over 800 euro in Galway.
 

County Clare had among the highest number of pub closures this year.

New figures from the Revenue Commissioners reveal that 65 premises across the county didn't renew their licences in 2010 amid fears that most are closing their doors due to the recession and tighter drink driving laws.

Overall a thousand pubs nationwide failed to renew their licence this year and the vintners industry says the closures have been averaging at one a day for the past three years.
 

A record 4 thousand people have applied for just 25 air traffic controller training positions in Shannon Cork and Dublin.

The Irish Aviation Authority's main business is in Ballycasey and the IAA recruits students every two years for the 24 month programme.

Yesterday was the deadline for applications and the aviation authority received a total of 4 132 - 165 applications for every student place and over twice the number received in 2007
 

Plans to mark the first anniversary of Muhammad Ali's visit to County Clare have been unveiled.

The three-time World Heavyweight Champion was named the first Honorary Freeman of Ennis in 1st September 2009 in recognition of his career achievements and his ancestral links with Clare's County Town.

The decision to mark the event next month follows calls by local businesses and tourism groups for an annual commemoration in an effort to boost visitor numbers to the county.

A North Clare restaurant has made the shortlist for one of the industry's most prestigious competitions

Gregan’s Castle in Ballvaughan has been nominated in four categories including Best Restaurant, Best Service, Style and Best Chef in the FOOD&WINE Magazine PENFOLDS Restaurant of the Year Awards 2010.

The Awards are recognised as on of the most authoritative culinary awards in the Irish calendar and take place on Sunday, 22 August.