Shannon

Shannon artist Seamus Scullion will be bringing his installation The Old Octopus Medicine Show to the Electric Picnic festival which is on from August 29-31 in Stradbally, County Laois. His proposal won the Art Caravan Competition and organisers described his concept as “a quirky, eccentric time machine full of magic, mystery, fairy lights and trampoline teepee’s. It will be an area where Picnickers can chill out, listen to music and enjoy some crazy art and quirkiness. Not only can you expect a unique mind-blowing atmosphere, there will be shots of miraculous elixir distributed as a prize on our wheel of misfortune along with some torture (just to balance things out)” Seamus said he and a number of others worked on the project at his sisters house for about three months and he was quite happy with what they built. “There was an advertisement for a trailer park in Electric Picnic and I put a submission in. We won the first …

AFTER some difficult years, which saw significant job losses at Shannon, the pendulum has now swung the other way, with hundreds of vacancies in local companies. Speaking in the Senate recently, Shannon’s Tony Mulcahy said there are now hundreds of jobs available in the town and local business figures agree that things have definitely turned after a very severe recession. As the legislation on the independence of Shannon Airport went through the upper house, Senator Mulcahy said, “Between 600 and 800 jobs are currently being advertised on the industrial estate and I have no doubt that, in seven or eight years, there will be up to 8,000 jobs available.” When he spoke to The Clare Champion on Tuesday, he outlined numerous companies that are now looking for new employees. “Wipro are hiring, they’re the old Halifax and they’ll be hiring people in September. Pepper Finance are hiring. EI have been taking people on all the time and they’re one of …

SHANNON Aerospace saw a boost in profitability in 2013, according to newly-filed accounts. The profit recorded for the year was €1,119,000, which was more than nine times the 2012 figure. The company was involved in a serious dispute with workers over pensions earlier this year, with industrial action almost resulting. Regarding the pension scheme, the accounts state, “The company operates a contributory defined benefit pension scheme. At the end of 2013, the net pension deficit calculated by the scheme’s actuary had decreased to €15.69 million (2012: €17.79 million). The company has maintained its contribution rate at 13.3% of pensionable salary, up to a salary cap of €50,000. Since the year-end, the company have ceased contributions to the defined benefit pension plan and will replace it with a defined contribution benefit plan for its employees. Management are currently in negotiations with the company’s workforce regarding the structure of this new scheme.” The accounts state that the number of workers at Shannon …

Ryanair’s announcement of a new flight from Manchester to Shannon Airport this winter, which will help boost tourism to Co Clare and the West of Ireland from the all-important British market, according to Tourism Ireland. Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, said: “Today’s announcement is more good news for tourism to the West of Ireland this year. We already work very closely with Ryanair and we look forward to co-operating with them to maximise the promotion of this new flight to Shannon. As an island, the importance of convenient, direct, non-stop flights cannot be overstated – they are absolutely critical to achieving growth in visitor numbers.” Britain is the largest single market for tourism to the island of Ireland; last year, we welcomed approximately 3.8 million British visitors, who contributed some €1.2 billion in revenue to the economy. Niall Gibbons continued: “Great Britain is the largest market for tourism to Ireland and we are really pleased to see strong growth …

AN Asian family living in Shannon’s Cúl na Gréine housing estate claim they are victims of racism, having been verbally abused, assaulted and having had their house egged many times over several years. They have blasted Clare County Council claiming they have failed to respond to numerous complaints and that the racism has come from the local authority, as well as those behind the direct abuse. One family member said that assurances they were given when they arrived have not been honoured and that incidents of racism were ignored by the local authority. “We are here for seven or eight years, since this estate was built. We were the first tenants here and when we signed the lease, we were given an assurance that if there was any anti-social behaviour, the people involved would be evicted. It was in the terms and conditions. We thought it sounded good, we were naïve, we didn’t know that council estates could be like …

A NUMBER of councillors expressed anger at problems in the water supply around Sixmilebridge and Cratloe, at this week’s Shannon Municipal District meeting. Councillor John Crowe put forward motions asking that the Cappa/Rossmanagher Group Water Scheme and the Castlecrine Group Water Scheme both be taken over by Irish Water. Fianna Fáil Councillor Cathal Crowe asked that the council and Irish Water devise a plan to improve water pressure to the Wood Road in Cratloe. Regarding the Cappa/Rossmanagher scheme, Councillor John Crowe said that people on it have only got “a trickle of water for the last three or four weeks and they have no place to go to try and get this rectified.” He claimed it is “an absolute disgrace” that issues with group water schemes can’t be sorted out. Illustrating the problem with water pressure, he said that people have left water running into a kettle for over three hours without filling it. Independent PJ Ryan said that on …

In a Seanad debate, Senator Tony Mulcahy claimed that locally based company Enva is behind the severe smells in Shannon, while he was very critical of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Enva were approached for comment but their only response was to rebut separate comments made by another senator about their Portlaoise facility. The EPA defended itself against Mr Mulcahy’s allegations and claimed it is proactive in seeking to prevent pollution. Speaking in the Seanad, Senator Mulcahy said, “Last year, I attended a meeting at which the horrendous smell that caused a serious problem in Shannon for the last couple of years was discussed. The smell was coming from the treatment plant, but I have always asked what was going into the treatment plant to cause the problem. There are 350 inadequate treatment plants around the country, but they do not all cause such a smell. We received figures from Enva in Shannon last year. These figures are on the …

THE prospect of a crematorium being developed in Shannon receded this week as Clare County Councillors voted against disposing of the relevant site, where planning permission exists, in Illaunmanagh. The margin was quite tight, with 14 voting against and 11 in favour. A report from the County Council’s Senior Executive Officer Michael McNamara explained that in March 2009 planning permission, subject to conditions, was granted by An Bord Pleanála for a crematorium on lands in the council’s ownership at Illaunmanagh, Shannon. This planning approval upheld a May 2008 decision of the council to grant permission for this development which was appealed by residents of Gleann an Óir. “Both the Shannon Area members and the full council subsequently approved of the sale of the lands in question to Illaunmanagh Ltd. The area involved was 1.29 acres and the price proposed was €140,000. The proposed development never went ahead and neither did the transfer of the lands to the developers,” Mr McNamara …