Shannon

ST TOLA’S National School has been praised in the Dáil for providing an example of how students with disabilities should be catered for. During the course of a debate on the provision of education for children with special needs, Clare TD Cathal Crowe said, “I will commend St. Tola’s National School in Shannon on being one of two schools in the country that has a multi-disability class. “The body politic always talks about ASD units, and that is so important, but it is only one disability across a spectrum of disabilities. The model in St. Tola’s is one we need to replicate throughout the country.” St Tola’s opened its class for pupils with multiple disabilities in May, with over €250,000 having been spent on providing a prefab and facilities for the children. At the time of the opening, school principal Mary Dunlea Fitzgerald said, “The children have multiple disabilities so they have challenges in relation to communication and movement and …

A TENNIS programme is being run throughout July for Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in Shannon. It started last week and is being run by Wesley O’Brien, who said it came to Shannon after something similar began in Meelick a few weeks earlier. “About three weeks ago I started a similar programme at the Radisson Hotel for the families there,” Wesley told The Champion. “A lady called Siobhán Boyd reached out to me, who’s with a group in Shannon, and she asked if I’d do something for the families in Shannon so I said no problem.” He was very pleased with how it had begun. “It went very well, we had good numbers considering it was the first day. We broke it into different age groups, there were five to ten-year-olds from half two to half three, 11 to 17 from half three to half four and then 18 and over from 4.30 to 5.30pm. Considering it was the first …

SHANNON is to benefit from a new electric bike share scheme across the town and the Free Zone. The scheme is operated by an Irish start-up CoMotion Mobility Solutions Ltd which has established a base at the Future Mobility Campus in Shannon. The free-floating scheme which is accessible via the CoMotion App will see 50 bikes deployed across the region. Bikes will be located on-street 24-7 and can be rented by paying a €1 unlocking fee and then just 1c per minute thereafter. The scheme is unique as it is sponsored by local businesses and elected members of the Shannon Municipal District. Sponsors include Shannon Group, EI Electronics, Clare County Council, Zagg International, Fine Grain Properties, Shannon Springs Hotel, Shannon Leisure Centre, Shannon Chamber of Commerce, Shannon Skillnet and Future Mobility Campus Ireland. According to Emma Dobbyn of CoMotion, “The scheme is made viable by the support of all the sponsors. “Their willingness to back the scheme and provide additional …

A US-BASED aircraft charter company has sent some flights through Shannon due to issues at Dublin, but is disappointed that even more can’t be accommodated at the Clare airport. Peter Le Bas, the CEO of California-based Le Bas International, was himself based in Shannon for a number of years. He said that while some planes that had been due to go through Dublin are going to Shannon, he is disappointed that even more can’t use the airport. “We’ve got a couple of flights coming into Shannon this Saturday, we would have had six into Shannon if we could, but they could only handle two of the six, which was a shame really. Kerry Airport handled the majority of them. “It was a bit of a shock for us that we couldn’t get into Dublin originally, it was the first time in 32 years to book a flight into the handling of an airport in advance and you just don’t get …

AN Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will officially open the Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) in Shannon Free Zone on Friday.  Mr Varadkar will be given a tour of the facility and see some of the new products that are being developed. The facility is for the development of things such as driverless cars, air taxis and drones to deliver life saving organs or drugs, as well as the air traffic technology to manage them – including ‘on the ground’ traffic, and other life-changing ‘the future is now’ technologies for use in Ireland and internationally.   Some of these will be on display at the official opening including a self-parking car and the latest Tesla which guests can test drive. Funded by Enterprise Ireland and industry partners, the unique FMCI campus at Shannon has world class facilities for aerospace and automotive research and development, including a recently opened Advanced Air Mobility Hub.  The commercially-viable facility supports a range of parties and enterprises, from …

THE country’s most successful soccer club, Shamrock Rovers is a Dublin institution. However, when the club had an away tie in the first qualification round of the Champions League this week, the Hoops ended up flying from Shannon rather than from the capital, even though it is 188km further from their ground than Dublin Airport. The club spent over €100,000 on chartering a flight to Malta for their second leg tie against Hibernians, but so congested was Dublin Airport that they couldn’t fly from there and had to go to Shannon instead. While it was unfortunate from the club’s point of view, it was yet more positive marketing for Shannon at a time when Dublin Airport is struggling to cope with the numbers using the airport, which is helping make the case that Irish aviation is far too centralised. Shannon Airport tweeted pictures of the Rovers squad at the airport and after wishing them well added, “It’s easier, faster and …

A US-bound passenger jet that suffered ‘serious hydraulic issues’ soon after taking off from an airport in Scotland, has made and emergency landing at Shannon Airport. Delta Air Lines flight DL-123 took off from Edinburgh Airport at around 12.30pm bound for Boston in the United States. The Boeing 767-300(ER) jet had climbed to 33,000 feet and levelled off before the flight crew reported an issue with one of the aircraft’s hydraulic systems. The crew entered a holding pattern off the Scottish coast as they attempted to troubleshoot the problem. The aircraft circled for about 15 minutes before the crew decided to divert to Shannon which, at 3,199 metres, is the longest runway in Ireland. It’s understood that the issued involved the aircraft hydraulic system that operates a number of aircraft functions. The crew advised air traffic controllers that they would not be able to vacate the runway under the aircraft’s own power after landing as they believed they would not …

IT may be high summer, but the usual activities are being run by Clare Youth Service in Shannon. “We’ve decided to continue on our programmes throughout the summer because the attendance at them is still quite high. Usually with people going away and doing different things you’d see a drop off, but because young people are still engaging with the programmes we’ve decided to keep them going and add in a few other ones,” said youth worker Thomas O’Hara. Young people about to start secondary school are being catered for, he said. “We’re starting our transition programme this week, our transistion to first year programme with groups of young people moving from sixth class to first year. That’s on Wednesday afternoons and it’s all based on discussions around what they can expect going into first year. We’ll be running through different communication games and exercises and stuff like that, a bit of team building and introducing them to the programmes …