Shannon

A PERMANENT marker has been put in place in the townland of Killula, close to Shannon Airport, to commemorate a 1961 plane crash in which four people were killed. The crash happened early on the morning of January 27, 1961, when an air corps De Havilland DH.104 Dove crashed while on a training exercise. There were five people on board, four of whom were killed. A person involved in the preparations for Tuesday’s event said, “The air corps are laying a marker stone on a site where an Air Corps plane crashed in 1961, four people lost their lives in that crash, it was on the approach to Shannon, in a place called Killula, on the way in. “There was a temporary marker on the site but they’ve put on a permanent one, and they came down to do that on Tuesday.” He said that the crash saw the deaths of two air corps pilots and two air traffic control …

THE man who for years flew the world’s largest aircraft paid a special visit to an exhibition in Shannon Airport this week. Captain Dmytro Antonov, Chief pilot for Antonov Airlines, who shares the same name as the famous Ukrainian aircraft company, spent time visiting the world’s largest collection of diecast model planes after recently flying into Shannon on the Antonov AN 124.   His reason was a poignant one – to view a rare scale model of the largest plane ever built – the Antonov AN-225, an aircraft that Dmytro himself captained for many years.   In October 2021, the AN-225, known as the ‘Mriya’, the Ukrainian word for dream, touched down at Shannon Airport for the last time before it was destroyed at Hostomel Airfield, outside of Kyiv, during the conflict in February of this year.  The 1– 200 scale model, which is one of only a few models of its kind in the world, is made from carbon …

A NEW wing featuring a permanent exhibition of Irish Air Corps memorabilia as been opened at the Shannon Aviation Museum. Exhibits include an Air Corps Fouga Magister F216, which was formerly on display at Collins Barracks, along with a Reims Rocket Cessna 172, which was in the fleet for 47 years. The installation of the permanent exhibition coincides with the Irish Air Corps centenary. At the official opening, director of the Museum Jane Magill paid tribute to the late Eddie Ryan, who was also heavily involved in its foundation. “Eddie would have been absolutely thrilled. We’d like to dedicate our efforts and this day to Eddie and his family.” She paid tribute to the Air Corps, saying, “The display area here is intended to recognise the Irish Air Corps and their contribution to our nation. The men and women who serve us with pride and excellence, and I’ve come to know a lot of them over the last few years. …

WELL over a year after Clare County Council rejected Aldi’s plans for a Shannon store, An Bord Pleanála has yet to make a decision on an appeal. A spokesperson for An Bord Pleanála this week said that its inspector has already completed work on the case, but it still has to go before the board of An Bord Pleanála. She was unable to say when this would happen, but that the agency is dealing with a significant backlog. While the board usually goes along with the inspector’s recommendations, that is not always the case. Indeed, on a previous occasion an inspector had recommended allowing an Aldi store to go ahead in the town, only for the board to overrule them. There has been much anger in recent years over how Shannon has developed, and the Council’s decision to block Aldi’s proposals led to more disquiet in the town. When the most recent Aldi application came before the Council, it was …

SAINT Aidan’s National School has received the green light for a single-storey extension, that will consist of two special educational needs classrooms and one mainstream classroom. The planners’ report said that the “extension measures (to maximum dimensions) 33.7m in width, 22.3m in depth and 5.4m in height. “The design of the proposed building will be similar in design and scale to the existing building and will contain a series of pitched roofs, albeit with more contemporary finish.” It also says the application included “the extension of an existing covered bike shelter located to the rear of the existing school building in the playground”. “The proposed bike shelter will be extended by an additional 2.7m which will allow for an additional four Sheffield stands to accommodate eight bicycles.” The application also included the extension of the existing car parking area to accommodate six cars. Regarding zoning, the planners’ report stated, “The proposed development site is located on land zoned within the …

JUST under €10 million was spent on residential property in Shannon town in the first six months of the year. According to figures from the Residential Property Price Register, there were 46 transactions during the first half of 2022, with a total spend of €9,978,750. That gives a mean price of €216,929. April was the quietest month of the year, with a mere four transactions, while there were nine in January and May and eight in each of the other three months. The largest sum paid was €560,000 for a house at Tullyglass Hill. The least costly transaction, for which full market price was still paid, was the sale of a property at Brú na Sionna for €90,000. The level of activity seems to be slightly higher than pre-pandemic, with the 46 transactions in the first half of 2022 slightly more than the 38 in the first half of 2019. Councillor Gerry Flynn said that there are finally some private …

SHANNON has nine new Airport Screening Unit officers, who received their official certificates after completing an intense training course in airport security.   The new officers have undergone training, which included the operation of the airport’s multimillion euro state-of-the-art 3D x-ray screening system. The high-tech system has in-built explosive detection software, which eliminates the need for passengers to separate liquids and electronics from their cabin bags. Shannon is the first state airport to introduce this new technology which halves the time spent going through screening.   Since March this year, the airport has recruited a total of 19 ASU officers to add to its existing team. The new recruits hail from various parts of Clare as well as from  Galway, Lithuania, Poland, and as far away as Bangladesh and New Zealand.   Welcoming the latest nine recruits to the team, Shannon Airport’s Head of Security John Francis said, “I would like to congratulate our latest group of newly trained ASU officers, and thank …

AFTER spending the last five years in Shannon, Father Francis Xavier Kochuveettil is moving to Toomevara, where he has been appointed as co-parish priest, beginning there on August 26. An Indian native, coming to Shannon was obviously a huge change, but he says he adapted quite quickly. “The people are very friendly, very, very friendly. When I came here I had no idea about Ireland at all, I learned everything from Shannon. “People supported me and encouraged me with everything. When I came here Tom Ryan was the parish priest, there was Canon Brendan and Father Arnold was the curate at that time, and we’ve had a good team here. “People are lovely here and I always thank God for bringing me here. It’s such a nice place here.” To the uninitiated, the accents in Clare are not the easiest to comprehend, and that was something he had to get used to. “I can follow English, but the Irish-English is …