Shannon

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

AS first reported in the Clare Champion last month, Ryanair has today opened its first aircraft heavy maintenance facility in Ireland at Shannon Airport, which will create 200 high-skilled jobs in the locality, including licensed engineers, mechanics, and support staff. The airline will invest €10 million in this state-of-the-art three-bay facility, leased from Shannon Group, to support the maintenance of Ryanair’s fleet as it grows to 600 aircraft by 2026. Ryanair Director of Operations, Neal McMahon, said, “We are delighted to announce the opening of our new aircraft maintenance facility at Shannon Airport – our first heavy maintenance facility in the country. This facility will create 200 high-skill jobs, demonstrating Ryanair’s continued growth & commitment to Ireland. “Ryanair creates opportunities for highly skilled engineering jobs, with our industry leading rosters and the youngest fleet in Europe. Shannon is an ideal location with opportunities to attract, train and employ local talent to support this new facility.” Shannon Group CEO, Mary Considine, …

LIAM Alford retained his WKA world light welterweight title in Wexford on Saturday night, knocking out French challenger Julien Letellier early on. On Monday Liam said he was “over the moon” with the result, which keeps the door open for a possible future defence in his home town. He said it had been an early knockout, although he hadn’t planned to exert much pressure in the early stages. “It was one minute and fifty seconds of the first round. We didn’t know too much about him, so the plan was to go out, suss him out for the first round, see what he’s got. Then start to capitalise and land some shots. “But I went out in the first round and I could see the opportunity and I was thinking why would I wait? If I feel I can catch him in the first round and get him out of there I may as well! “The plan for the first …

SHANNON is mourning the passing of a true community champion after Tess Barry was laid to rest recently. Following the funeral Canon Brendan O’Donoghue said that almost as soon as he came to Shannon he became aware of her place in the community. “I remember when I came to Shannon 33 years ago, I was a new parish priest. I moved into Boyne Park and I couldn’t get over the reaction there from the people. “They were all lamenting the fact that a lady named Tess Barry, one of the residents, had moved to Fearnóg. I didn’t know who Tess Barry was at the time but it didn’t take me long to find out!” He said that Tess had made a huge contribution to the town. “She was in Shannon for many years and got involved in every sort of organisation. The Tidy Towns, the Senior Citizens, the Apostolic Work, the ICA, the Society of Care, were all organisations she …

SIXMILEBRIDGE haulier Eoin Gavin is the new President of Shannon Chamber. He succeeds outgoing president Stephen Keogh, managing partner of Sellors LLP, who served a two-year term as president. Mr Gavin set up Eoin Gavin Transport in 1998. The company now exports/imports products for a wide range of customers in diverse sectors to markets in Ireland, the UK, Europe and worldwide. A director of Shannon Chamber since 2018, Mr Gavin has contributed greatly to the work of the Chamber. As a member of its Transport Committee, he played a key role in lobbying for new transport links between Ireland and mainland Europe, post Brexit.  He also called for changes in the processing of customs documentation to alleviate the delays experienced by hauliers and freight forwarders in transporting goods from Ireland to the United Kingdom in early 2021 and appeared before the Oireachtas Committee for Transport and Communications to present the case for change.  Mr Gavin was also a member of …