Latest news with #Clodagh
Irish Independent
09-08-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Poignant scenes as late Clodagh Phelan (11) honoured with new memorial bench
The 11-year-old from Newbawn, Rathdrum tragically died on July 22 of last year, after falling from a balcony. She was on holiday at the Club Mac hotel with her family in the resort of Puerto de Alcudia in the north-east of Mallorca. A pupil of St Saviour's National School, she was laid to rest at the Holy Trinity Church, Castlemacadam, Avoca. A gifted and talented young sportswoman, members of Codagh's beloved Parnell Athletic Club, Avondale GAA Club and Camogie Club, Rathdrum Rugby Club, Clara LGFA and Wicklow Hockey Club all formed a guard of honour at the funeral service. Clodagh's parents Liam and Valerie were present for the unveiling of the memorial bench on Tuesday evening, along with Clodagh's brothers Will and David, members of the Vale of Avoca Men's Shed, who made the bench, and friends and associates of the Phelan family. The memorial bench is now in place beside the skills wall at Avondale GAA grounds, and Liam, Valerie, Will and David all helped plant a mountain ash tree beside the bench in another fitting tribute to Clodagh. Victor O'Shaughnessy of the Vale of Avoca Men's Shed said each and every member made a contribution to the design and creation of the bench, which took up to two months to complete. 'I know the Phelan family well and Clodagh was a lovely and extremely talented young girl. Her passing shocked the whole town, and one can only imagine the impact it had on the family. "Avondale GAA Club contacted us about the memorial bench and we spent around two months working on it. We used Douglas Fir wood. We have plenty of men in the shed and all of us contributed. There was plenty of sanding and routing involved, and we all made an extra effort because it was something that so special and important to us.' Members of Avondale GAA Club and Avondale Camogie Club also came out in great numbers for the unveiling of the bench. The bench comes complete with two memorial plaques using painted black slate featuring the crests of both the GAA and camogie club. Victor added: 'It was a very moving ceremony with plenty of tears. The huge crowd just shows how much affection everyone had for Clodagh. It was nice to have Liam, Valerie, Will and David present, and we will all greatly cherish Clodagh's memory. She is badly missed.'
The Sun
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Mums need to stop wearing leggings, there is nothing sexy about them and they are ruining your confidence, stylist says
IT'S an outfit donned by mums worldwide on a daily basis. But according to one stylist, there's "nothing sexy" about leggings and a jumper - and "nothing about the look that makes you feel good about yourself" either. 4 4 4 4 Clodagh is a personal stylist, who helps "empower" women through their wardrobe choices, and documents the journey in videos on her YouTube and TikTok pages. In a recent episode of The Clo's Show, she met up with mum-of-three Lesley, to help her get out of her style rut, and express herself with her outfits. "I'm a stylist and I work with women every single day that suffer with their style confidence because they have been wearing this uniform of leggings," she began. "Are you over 40, feeling meh and still stuck in leggings?" Clo wrote over the top of a TikTok clip of the installment. "Watch Lesley ditch her leggings and get her confidence back!" Lesley admitted she was "so stuck in the mindset of the leggings" that she just stuck them on in the morning before the school run. But when Clo started to show her some other wardrobe options, she began to realise that she would be a lot more confident wearing something else. And as an added bonus, Lesley already had all the clothes she needed in her wardrobe. In the first outfit, she wore a pair of wide-legged black trousers and white slogan T-shirt, as she said: "I feel great. I feel very comfortable. "It's actually nice to be out of the leggings!" "So what would stop you in the morning from not wearing this to drop the kids off or go to work in?" Clo asked Lesley. "Look how happy Lesley was by just getting out of those leggings and putting on a plain pair of black wide leg pants that she bought in Tesco," she added. "Look at the difference they make for her confidence!" "The beauty of this is not only did Lesley not spend a penny, but her confidence has been elevated through the roof and she now understands how easy it is to put fab outfits together and how easy it is to mix and match her stuff," Clo added in the description for the YouTube video. People were quick to comment on the video, with many agreeing with Clo's fashion analysis. "I refuse to have leggings, tracksuits, baggy tops in my wardrobe," one wrote. Styling tips for women 50+ Our Fabulous Fashion Editor Clemmie Fieldsend shares her top tips... GET A BRA FIT: Underwear is the foundation to every single outfit, so make sure your bra is the correct fit. If you're off to a good start you'll finish with a great outfits. EMBRACE COLOUR: Bright colours will lift your skin tone and will give you glowing skin. INVEST IN GOOD BASICS: You'll need your essentials like a good pair of straight leg jeans, white shirt, white t-shirt, black blazer and well made black shoe. You can't go wrong with rotating them when you don't know what to wear. AVOID SHAPELESS: Hiding your figure under shapeless silhouettes is doing to date you and make you look frumpy. Try fitted clothes that aren't figure hugging - you need to be able to breathe. EXPERIMENT: Try different items you wouldn't usually go for and mix them with what you already have. The results can mean a better dressed and more confident you. "I love to wear nice clothes daily - and it's cheaper than people think." "Yes!!!" another said. "It's all about how you feel and being in an outfit that makes your feel put together regardless of what you're doing." "I'm 43 and I stopped wearing leggings a few weeks now," a third commented. "I've a bit of a belly and skinny legs so I looked like Mr Tayto, so stopped wearing them as I felt leggings made my stomach look bigger."
Irish Examiner
04-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Examiner
Whisk up some fun with these online cooking classes for kids and teens
IT'S ALMOST noon on a school holiday Tuesday, and the kids are ready to go. Since 11am, they've been checking their recipes, busily weighing, measuring, and preparing ingredients. Now it's time to log in to the Zoom call for the start of their Cookalicious online cooking camp, featuring 90 minutes of high-energy entertainment with a solid focus on that day's assortment of dishes. It might be a day for soda bread pizza, Italian frittata, and energy balls, or pasta salad with ham and cheese jambons and lemon drizzle squares. No matter what's on the menu, there's one thing for certain: everyone is going to sit down together to a feast afterwards, the participants will try everything, and, even better, for parents who are trying to juggle work at the same time, there'll probably be leftovers for supper. Since Oranmore-based Cepta Mahon started her online cooking classes for teens and tweens in 2020, she has beamed into kitchens throughout Ireland to teach hundreds of children about the joy and long-term value of cooking. She's not just teaching children how to make that day's lunch: she's educating them — and their parents — about nutrition, confidence, and the value of a home-cooked meal. Her classes are also a lot of fun. 'We should all be able to throw together simple dishes that don't take a huge amount of time,' she says. 'I like to make dishes that are doable and relatable and that all members of the family, whether they're seven, 17 or 47, are going to enjoy.' With three children of her own — Clodagh (19), Orla (17), and Liam (13) — she has developed a knack for picking winners. Many of the dishes kids try for the first time in a Cookalicious class go on to become regularly cooked family favourites. 'I use basic ingredients. There's nothing in there that you couldn't get in your local shop or supermarket. These are all bog-standard staples that people should have in their own homes or be able to get easily in supermarkets.' Cepta Mahon: 'I started doing classes from my own house because people wanted to learn but didn't want to go to a school or an educational establishment.' Mahon, who had a career in finance before she moved into the world of food, had been teaching adult education cooking classes in Galway before deciding to go out on her own. 'I started doing classes from my own house because people wanted to learn but didn't want to go to a school or an educational establishment.' Her experience in tackling food education from an alternate angle came in handy during covid. 'I was a mom with three kids trying to do the homeschooling thing,' she recalls, 'and making an absolute shambles of it. I just knew we needed things to keep the kids going and keep them entertained.' It's easy to forget how helpless and isolated we all felt during that time of lockdowns and isolation, where normally sociable children were stuck at home with screens, rather than being able to learn with their peers. 'I wanted to do something to help and knew I couldn't do anything in the health area,' says Mahon, 'but my speciality was cooking and engaging people and drawing them in and being able to teach and help them create dishes. I just thought, 'Let's go with the online thing and see how we can figure it out'.' Figure it out she did, and Mahon has continued ever since, successfully running her popular three-day camps (€55) during the Easter, summer, and Halloween holidays when kids are at home and free to learn skills, recipes, and be exposed to new foods. The live classes take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, starting at 12pm and continuing until about 1.30pm. There's also the option of cooking along with the recording at a later time, on a date or at a pace that suits your own family. After signing up, participants are sent a recipe pack that includes a full ingredients list — helpfully broken down into categories — with encouragement to check what you have at home before going shopping. Wise advice for cooks of any age. Mahon regularly orchestrates classes that involve 50 or 60 screens — some with multiple children involved — tuning in from all around the country. 'Zoom makes it very accessible,' she says, 'and payment is per screen so that you can have a friend or a cousin — or a dad — involved. You can have fun in the kitchen with them, cooking together and divvying up chores. That in itself is a life skill.' Cepta Mahon: 'We have to nurture kids and encourage them because the only way they're going to learn is by doing. As parents, we have a responsibility to educate our kids and teach them to cook." After a recent camp, one mother told Mahon that her sons, aged 15 and 13, did everything. 'Going to the shop, getting the ingredients themselves. Doing the preparing, the chopping, the cooking, the cleaning. This mom said that never in a million years did she think they would have been capable of it.' Mahon has found that most children — she now has a 50:50 split of boys and girls attending her classes — are far more capable in the kitchen than their parents give them credit for. 'We have to nurture kids and encourage them because the only way they're going to learn is by doing. As parents, we have a responsibility to educate our kids and teach them to cook. Trust them and encourage them. Don't be bothered with the mess,' she adds. 'It's so easy to clean up afterwards.' She is also adept at adding nuggets of food education to her cook-along commentary. 'I want to teach them about healthy, nutritious food, that it's important to know where your food is coming from and to avoid food waste.' In classes, participants 'learn about the importance of cooking from scratch as much of the time as possible,' she explains. Mahon's enthusiasm transcends the small screen, as she cooks and engages with kids in their kitchens, bringing them from hesitantly peeling and chopping to proudly presenting a selection of delicious dishes for their families to enjoy. 'We're giving them skills for life and the wherewithal to make better food choices,' she says, 'and we're hoping that they're going to be able to be independent enough to move out of home and cook for themselves and, in time, cook for their own families too.' It's an investment in the future, with the rewards arriving on your kitchen table from day one. The next Cookalicious Teen and Tween Camp will take place online from July 15 to 17, 2025. See: Read More How wellbeing festivals have grown more popular in Ireland
RTÉ News
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Watch: Teen creates designs from plants and organic waste
A teenager from Co Westmeath has been creating sustainable fashion designs made from organic waste and living plants. 17-year-old Clodagh Ramsay was named World Designer of the Year at the Junk Kouture world final with her innovative design made from 30kg of waste blue mussel shells. Clodagh says the design will later be ground down into a powder that can fertilise soil. Clodagh says she likes to think of her design process as "borrowing from nature". Another of her designs featured living plants that she watered and kept alive while the piece was being created and worn, and later re-planted them in her garden.
The Irish Sun
21-06-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Aoife McCoy reveals Armagh LGFA taking inspiration from male counterparts in their hunt for All-Ireland football glory
AOIFE McCOY and the Armagh ladies do not have to look far for heroes to inspire their bid for TG4 All-Ireland SFC glory. On July 28 of last year, the county's men edged out history — and the first since a breakthrough success in 2002. 2 Aoife McCoy revealed Armagh are inspired by Armagh's men's All-Ireland final win over Galway 2 Armagh beat Galway in last year's Sam Maguire final Credit: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile In their 1-11 to 0-13 triumph at Eight days earlier, McCambridge's sisters Clodagh and Meabh featured alongside Mackin's sibling Blaithin — his other sister Aimee was missing through injury — as Armagh lost out to McCoy, who works from home in Lisburn as a software engineer, lined out at centre-half forward on that day in Tullamore. And as Armagh aim to go a couple of steps further in this year's Brendan Martin Cup, she acknowledges the lads' achievements can spur them on. Read More on LGFA She explained: 'I think plenty of people have said it. 'The boys winning the All-Ireland last year, not really realising it, but it has maybe been a good push for ourselves as well. It has just brought a lot of happiness and stuff to the county. 'I think for ourselves it probably has pushed us on. 'We have a lot of girls that have siblings that are involved in that panel. The likes of Clodagh and the Mackins and stuff like that. Most read in GAA Football 'Definitely you're trying to emulate that success. Even without knowing it, it probably has pushed us on that bit more too.' Despite Young Kerry LGFA fan steals the show with sign during All-Ireland final win over Galway McCoy and her Orchard colleagues will also be hoping to have booked a spot in the last eight of the Brendan Martin Cup by the time the final whistle sounds in their Group 3 clash with Should Armagh get the better of the Lilywhites this afternoon, they will join Meath — who they have drawn with in their sole group fixture to date — in the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals on the weekend of July 5-6. The Orchard women could also potentially claim top spot ahead of a Meath side that secured a three-point victory against provincial rivals Kildare last weekend. But McCoy stressed the main focus will be on trying to get the better of the Lilywhites. PRIME FOCUS She said: 'A win will basically secure us a spot in the quarter-final and then after that, obviously we'd love to finish first in the group. 'To get that home quarter-final, that would be great. 'We'll be focusing really on a win first and then just take it from there to see how it goes. 'Kildare have obviously come into Division 1 this year and they've maintained their status there. 'In 2023 they won the intermediate, so they're a very good side. We played them earlier in the year down in Silverbridge. 'That was a home game for us. We had a very good performance that day, we were going pretty well in the league at the time, but they're a very good team and they have some quality players.' While McCoy has played in no fewer than six Football League finals since breaking on to the Armagh panel in 2014, her sole All-Ireland final appearance to date at adult level has been on the club scene. Although she hails from St Patrick's Dromintee GAC, McCoy had a previous spell with Shane O'Neills in Camlough at a point when her home club was not in a position to field a team. Joining her on this adopted side were fellow Dromintee footballers Shauna Grey and Katie Daly — and it was a productive time for the trio. After helping them to secure county and provincial honours, McCoy, Grey and Daly featured for Shane O'Neills in an AIB All-Ireland intermediate club championship final against Galway's Annaghdown at Parnell Park in December 2016. A superb 2-4 haul from Aimee Mackin was not enough to get the Armagh and Ulster champions past their Connacht opponents. But McCoy admitted reaching this showpiece was part of a great adventure with the Camlough outfit. She added: 'A great experience to say that you played in an All-Ireland club final and unfortunately we just couldn't get the result. 'But we probably couldn't have asked for a better club to be transferred to. It was a brilliant experience with a great group of girls.'
