Shannon

SHANNON is set to see two festivals this June, one being organised by Damian O’Rourke of Cuppa Tea TV and the other by Chris Walshe of Hippo Sound and Lighting. The Shannon Summer Music Festival, which Chris is working on, will be a one-day event on June 11, while Damian’s one will be over the last week in June, and will be known as the Wings Festival. Both are being supported by Clare County Council and by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Speaking this week about the Shannon Music Festival, Chris said, “It’s taking place on June 11 in the Town Park. It’ll be taking place around the bandstand, early on there’ll be a family fun day with music, children’s entertainment, cultural performances. “In the evening then, from around 6pm onwards, there’ll be a main stage there where bands and local performers will take over, it’ll be live music for the rest of the evening.” …

THE murders of Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee in Sligo horrified the country last week and the tragedies were marked by a vigil at the Town Park on Monday night. Councillor Donna McGettigan was one of those in attendance and she said her son Jamie, who is transgender, had been involved in organising it. “There wasn’t a huge turnout, but there was a nice, small crowd there on a Bank Holiday Easter Monday, it needed to be marked.” She said that it was very important that people show their revulsion at the killings. “Of course it was important to mark it. We had been out for Ashling Murphy as well and it’s important to show that we stand with the LGBTI+ community against homophobia and transphobia, to show that this kind of behaviour can’t go on. “On the night I said that children aren’t born to hate, they’re taught how to hate. As a community, as parents, as schools, we …

THE Shannon Tidy Towns group is planning a significant clean-up of the town on Saturday, beginning at 11am at the bandstand in the Town Park. Secretary of the group Derek Clune said, “It’s part of the National Spring Clean that happens once a year, and in conjunction with that, we’re having it on April 23.” Explaining how it will work, Derek added, “What we do is we divide the town into zones. We meet at the Town Park, there’d usually be 40 or 50 people and we distribute them to the different zones. “You have the Drumgeely side, the centre of the town, the Town Park, the Tullyvarraga end and the Ballycasey side. “During the week then, obviously not on the Saturday, we bring the schools out, St Caimin’s and the Comp, and we normally do the River Walk with them, which gets them involved as well. “The Ukrainian people will be coming out as well on the 23rd, so …

SHANNON is set to receive a jobs boost with Ryanair about to do a deal to take on a hangar locally, with 150-200 jobs set to be created in aircraft maintenance and repair. It is understood that Shannon Group and Ryanair are on the brink of signing a contract under which Ryanair would take on the hangar, which had previously been used by Lufthansa, but has been vacant of late. Securing the business with Ryanair would be seen as a coup for Shannon Group, while the jobs to be created would largely be skilled and well paid. In recent years there has been a concerted effort to develop Shannon as a hub for aviation related companies, and there are now more than 80 of them in the area, with thousands employed.

THE CHAIR of Clare County Council has asked that Shannon Airport be marketed as “the gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way”. At the April meeting of the local authority, Councillor PJ Ryan called on the Council to request Shannon Group, Clare Tourism, Fáilte Ireland and other tourism-related bodies to undertake the marketing initiative. A written reply from Deirdre O’Shea, Acting Head of Tourism said that the success of Fáilte Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way brand “presents a unique opportunity for the marketing of Shannon Airport”. “The Clare Tourism Advisory Forum, as an industry stakeholder-led forum comprises of representatives from Clare Tourism Department, Tourism businesses and State agencies, to include Fáilte Ireland and Shannon Group, meets on a bi-monthly basis,” the response said. “The marketing of Shannon Airport is a recurring agenda item. This facilitates all partners on the forum working collaboratively to ensure that Shannon Airport and air connectivity to the West of Ireland receives continued priority through collaborative marketing nationally …

AFTER 29 years and after placing a huge number of people in jobs, Shannon company Peach Recruitment is closing down. Since the start it has been run by Derek Barrett, a well known figure in Shannon, and he said he really enjoyed the experience. “It was a great business to be in, because ultimately we were helping people. The amount of people we placed in this town has been fantastic. We were always delighted to do that. “There were others we couldn’t place, but we always tried to help them, whether that was improving their CV or giving them career advice.” We always tried to do right by the jobseekers. They were always the number one priority, I know people would say the client, the employer is the primary one, but we would have taken a view that if we get it right for the candidate it all works out. If you get it wrong, it doesn’t work out for …

FUNDING of €4.3 million has been announced for Shannon Airport under the Regional Airports Programme 2022. Welcoming the allocation by Hildegarde Naughton TD, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Shannon Group CEO Mary Considine said the funding was very welcome as the airport continued its recovery. “The funding for Shannon Airport announced today by Minister Naughton will enable the airport to invest in vital infrastructure and rebuild in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ms Considine. “While we have made good strides in restoring air services at Shannon with 26 services to 11 destinations for summer 2022 secured, there is still a challenging few years ahead for the aviation sector. We are grateful for this Government support and will use it to continue to fund vital improvements to our airport infrastructure.” Positive news for @ShannonAirport of €4,347,750 Capital Allocation Funding announced by Min @1Hildegarde. Continued investment & promotion of the airport crucial for Clare & Mid West …

AROUND 250 people turned out for a welcoming barbecue held at Wolfe Tones on Saturday, with around 100 of them newly arrived Ukrainians. It was the brainchild of the Love Shannon Community Council as the group’s Assistant Secretary Fiona O’Brien Maxwell explained. “We had a member of the group who said it’d be great if we could organise a barbecue and get someone like Wolfe Tones to host it for us. I know the operations manager through work, we supply Wolfe Tones with a lot of stuff so I got onto Paul Hogan there and he said just give me a hand in pulling one or two bits together and we’ll make it work. It grew legs from there, basically it was a welcome barbecue and it was open to the whole town.” All were welcome to attend and Love Shannon gave transport to the club for the new arrivals. “The invitation was extended to the town basically, to whoever …