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Shannon

Shannon summer music festival to spread the joy

THE Shannon Summer Music Festival will take place on this Saturday, June 11, in the Town Park.  It is being organised by Chris Walshe and he said there will be something for all age groups on the day. “It starts at 2pm and from 2-6pm we’ll have children’s entertainment. We’ll have face painting, balloon modellers, kiddies disco and we’ll have a DJ. From 6pm on it’ll be live music on the main stage in the Park.” All of the acts during the evening are local. “First up we have the Kirby brothers, then we have Adam Moloney, then we have a band called North of Fortitude, then we’ve a band called the Mangled Badgers. “The last band then, the headliners, is a band called Sticky September. You might know the bands One September and Sticky Fingers. The two of those are joining forces for the evening.” It is the first major outdoor event in the town for several years and …

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‘It’s delightful to be going from Shannon Airport’

ALL week, news reports have been highlighting the crisis at Dublin Airport, where more than 1,000 people missed flights last Sunday. Around Clare there is little sympathy for an airport which is seen as having pursued a fairly aggressive policy of targeting the traffic of its smaller competitors. Many people are saying they won’t fly from the capital again, happy to  holiday from whatever destinations Shannon has available at the time. To test the ease of using Shannon, the Clare Champion simulated the experience of a passenger catching a flight scheduled for departure to the UK at 3.15pm on Wednesday afternoon. The first step involved driving to Shannon and after leaving Ennis at 1.19pm, we turned off the engine in Shannon 21 minutes later.  While people who only fly from Shannon might not fully appreciate it, the fact of not hitting any red lights in the miles up to the airport and effectively having no congestion to deal with is …

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Closing road entrance could lead to death, says councillor

THE closing off of the entrance to the Cluainin apartments at Tullyvarraga could result in a death, so difficult does it make access for emergency vehicles, the May meeting of local councillors heard. In a motion before the meeting, Fianna Fáil’s Pat O’Gorman said, “I’m calling on this Municipal District to reopen the entrance to Cluainin apartments as a matter of health and safety. “There are a lot of residential care facilities within the above address, which call on emergency services on a more regular basis. “When there is an emergency and the Eircode is given out the ambulance is not directed to the house but to the entrance that has been closed off by Clare County Council. “The entrance has to be reopened or at the very least in the meantime the maps should be updated.” However a report from Senior Executive Planner Gareth Ruane explained the reasoning. “The Cluainin housing development received planning permission to use a temporary …

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‘People will pick up the poo, but where do they put it after?’

THE lack of bags for dog waste or bins on the Shannon Estuary Loop is causing a problem, Councillor Pat O’Gorman told a recent meeting of Shannon Municipal District. At the meeting Councillor O’Gorman put forward a motion looking for bags and dog waste bins to be installed along the route. In a written reply Senior Executive Engineer Tom Mellett said, “Clare County Council currently operates a leave no trace policy. To this end additional waste bins are not encouraged. “Scoop bags are provided by our environment department and are available free of charge from the Shannon MD office upon request.” However, that did not satisfy Councillor O’Gorman. He said that even when people do pick up the waste, they have nowhere to go. “People will pick up the poo, but where do they put it after?” He said that in some cases they actually hang it on trees on the walk. Councillor O’Gorman said that in one case he …

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‘There are a lot of people sleeping in cars’

NO properties in Shannon were available to rent on daft.ie or myhome.ie last Thursday or Friday, reflecting an extraordinarily tight market, in which supply is almost non-existent and prices are high. Councillor Gerry Flynn said that the local housing situation is really poor. “It’s abysmal, there’s no doubt about it. Since the Council took over Shannon (it assumed responsibility for the town from Shannon Development in 2004) it has received total saturation of social housing. That’s all Shannon has got, social housing from Clare County Council.” “Shannon Development used always make areas available for private housing. That in turn helped a lot of people who wanted to buy their own house. This policy is in place since September 2004 and this policy is coming home to roost. “They (the Council) saw Shannon as a luxury of sorts, to get over 100 acres of residential land, already zoned, and they were focusing on Shannon as being the solution to social housing …

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College plans expansion but needs student accommodation

THE Shannon College of Hotel Management has an economic impact of over €5 million per annum, its head Dr Phillip J Smyth told a meeting of Shannon Municipal District councillors on Tuesday. The meeting was held at the College and at its outset the members heard a presentation from Dr Smyth, which was somewhat disrupted because of a cyber attack on NUI Galway, of which the college is a part. Dr Smyth said that it is now quite difficult to get housing for its approximately 400 students. “The biggest problem we have is accommodation,” he said. Dr Smyth said that a mail shot is going out throughout the Municipal District, looking for expressions of interest in housing students. Explaining some of the college’s history, he said that when it was being established by Dr Brendan O’Regan, approaches were made to Government for funding. However Dr Smyth said the Government’s position was that “there were not jobs for 12 trained hotel …

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Molly Bloom! Shannon girl’s biodiversity vision comes to fruition

ONE young Shannon girl got to see her vision for a biodiversity garden come to fruition last week. Ten-year-old primary school student Molly McPhillips was on hand to cut the ribbon at the launch of Shannon Group’s new community biodiversity garden and see her winning design in full bloom. Last year, Molly, a fourth-class student at St Senan’s National School won a competition to design a new biodiversity garden in Shannon, after her proposal was selected as the popular vote on social media. Last Tuesday, Molly, along with her classmates, returned to see her inspiring garden design in full bloom during a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the official opening of the community garden on the Shannon Campus. After exploring the garden and seeing her inspirational design blossom into this new community amenity, Molly said, “I love all the wildflowers and the nature all around here. I am really happy, excited and proud. “I planted a tree and I got …

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Council close in on site for potential Shannon civic centre

CLARE County Council is close to taking over a site at Shannon, where a civic building could be installed, this week’s meeting of Municipal District councillors heard. Giving an update to members, Director of Service Liam Conneally said that work is continuing on Shannon’s application for Urban Regeneration Development Funding. He also said that the Council is in the process of concluding the lease on the relevant site, and then it will come under the local authority’s control. The recently launched Shannon Town Centre Masterplan has a plan for something called the One Shannon Hub, which would have multiple uses, including relocated County Council offices, a ‘greenhouse’ which would be a space for a variety of uses such as co-working, education, and training, exhibitions, meeting rooms and conference opportunities. The building would also have a performing arts venue. Mr Conneally said a lot of work has been done on the brief and the proposed size of the building for the …

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