Shannon

THE development of a masterplan for Newmarket-on-Fergus is “vital” in preparing for the future growth of the village a meeting of councillors has heard. Clare County Council Senior Planner Helen Quinn has confirmed that the village is the next recommended location for a masterplan exercise within the Shannon Municipal District. Councillor Pat McMahon told a meeting of the municipal district that he has received “a large number of enquiries from individuals, various organisations and voluntary bodies” about the need for a masterplan for Newmarket-on-Fergus. He pointed to the upgrade of the waste water treatment plant, which it is envisaged will allow for the growth of the village including additional housing. “It is vital that parallel to this is a masterplan to plan for the future,” he said. Ms Quinn, senior planner, responded to the motion, “As members are aware a Town Centre First Masterplan is currently underway for Sixmilebridge. “The locations and programming of further town centre first masterplanning excercises …

GRAVE concerns among the local community in Shannon visiting Illaunmanagh cemetery were highlighted at a meeting of councillors where it was confirmed plans are underway for a new footpath and improved car parking. Councillor Gerry Flynn, at a meeting of the Shannon Municipal District, highlighted “big entourages” of vehicles attending services at the crematorium parking in spaces provided for the graveyard. Illegal encampments have led to the closing of the parking area near the main entrance, he added saying this is “causing a massive inconvenience”. While sight lines when exiting on to Slí na Mara, “a very busy road, is causing safety issues”. Responding to the motion, Tom Mellett, Senior Executive Engineer Shannon Municipal District stated, “Shannon Municipal District will be installing a new footpath and improved public car parking area in the Illaunmanagh area. “The works include the installation of new drainage infrastructure, kerbing, a new macadam footpath, a new car parking area and improving the entrance to the …

WORK is set to begin in Shannon in the coming days on the replacement of almost 2km of old water mains, carrying drinking water into the town. The new pipework will reduce the number of bursts and unplanned outages which inconvenience residents in Shannon. The works, which take place along the R471 between the Bealach Brí junction and the Smithstown Road roundabout at Ballycasey will improve the reliability of supply to Shannon Town, according to Irish Water’s Regional Delivery Lead Gerard O’Donnell. Traffic management will be in place, but Irish Water says that local and emergency traffic will be maintained at all times. Areas of work will be limited to short sections and the majority of works taking place in the road verge or hard shoulders. Short term supply interruptions may be required to deliver the works, but the project team has said it will ensure that residents are given a minimum of 48 hours’ notice prior to any planned …

NUMEROUS destinations in Spain and Malta are proving popular with almost 40,000 people expected to travel through Shannon Airport this August Bank Holiday weekend. The figure is indicative of the continued resurgence in airport traffic, representing 87% of the numbers that travelled for the same period in 2019. Sunny locations like Malaga, the Canary Islands, Alicante, Barcelona and Malta are popular this weekend, while those looking for a city break are jetting off to the likes of London, Edinburgh, Budapest, and Marseille on last-minute getaways. Shannon Airport’s Operations and Commercial Director, Niall Maloney said: “We are delighted to welcome passengers through the airport this weekend and can see the demand out there for those well-deserved breaks. This is the largest number of passengers for this period in three years. “We are focused on making travel as easy as possible for our passengers and growing their travel options from Shannon Airport. In addition to our popular traditional routes, we have a …

SIEMENS Digital Industries Software has annnounced it will invest €7m in a new software research and development group in Shannon. The multimillion-euro investment will focus on High Performance Computing (HPC) in the Cloud for semiconductor design and is expected to create 25 jobs over three years. The project, which is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland, is the first ‘Cloud EDA’ R&D group to be established by Siemens Digital Industries Software globally, and enhances Ireland’s already strong reputation of in Cloud Software Development and HPC R&D. This division is expected to create more than 25 new and highly impactful R&D roles in Shannon over the next three years, focused on delivering cutting edge cloud HPC environments for Siemens EDA workloads. Tánaiste & Minister for Enterprise Trade & Employment Leo Varadkar said: “This is great news from Siemens, investing €7m in Shannon and creating 25 new highly skilled jobs over the next three years. It really demonstrates the skill …

PARISH priest Father Arnie Rosney is celebrating the 25th anniversary of his ordination, with a silver jubilee mass at Ss John & Paul Church on Saturday evening at 6.30pm, followed by a parish reception at the Oakwood Hotel. Entering the priesthood is a major commitment, opening the door to one way of life while closing other doors, and as Father Arnie made his way through Maynooth in the early to mid 90s, he increasingly realised that it was for him. “I’m not sure it (becoming a priest) was something I always wanted to do, but I always thought it was something worthwhile doing. I saw it as a good way to spend my life. “When I was going through Maynooth I never expected to see the whole thing through, I never expected that. But as you went up along and got closer to it, you got more settled into it and you suddenly realise this way of life is for …

TÁNAISTE Leo Varadkar was in Shannon last week for the official opening of the Future Mobility Campus Ireland in the Free Zone. It’s the country’s first full-scale development centre and test-bed for mobility technologies. In essence the facility exists to work on the development of driverless cars, air taxis and drones, as well as the air traffic technology to manage them. Addressing the attendance on the day Mr Varadkar spoke about the development of Ardnacrusha, and how that shows a history of innovation and vision in Clare, while he also spoke about the county’s future. “I think that first Government showed really enormous vision in making that decision, making that bet for Ireland that turned out to be the right one. “That was followed up by other innovations in this region, Shannon Airport, Duty Free and of course the Shannon Free Zone where we are now. This region has always been at the forefront of industrial innovation and that should …

HAVING been very active since the start of the pandemic, the Shannon Tidy Towns group will hold its AGM at the Hope Cafe at 7.30pm on July 26. The height of summer has seen the group activity step up further. “It’s a very busy time of year for every Tidy Towns group. There are litter picks three times a week, the Council won’t do weeding and clearing of roundabouts and islands around the town, so we do that,” said the group’s secretary Derek Clune. “Our hanging baskets are up, our flower beds are planted, they are watered two or three times a week, that’s another job to keep on top of. “We have 22 hanging baskets at the entrance to the town so they have to be watered on a regular basis. There’s a lot of flowers in them so they need to be watered at least twice a week. “Of course we keep the River Walk clean as well, …