Tag Archives: shannon

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 …

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 …

HAVING achieved all he could in kickboxing, David Ryan has now secured a pro boxing licence and will make his debut within a few months. The 27-year-old, who works as a butcher at Morrissey’s in the Town Centre, comes to the sport having enjoyed huge success as a kickboxer. “Basically there was nothing else I could win in kickboxing. I’ve won everything, Irish, European, pro world titles, so I thought I’d move on and give it a go.” Ryan got involved in combat sport with Howie Vincent at the Shannon Kickboxing Club, while still a child in national school. While he won numerous titles there, his last kickboxing fight was before the pandemic and he plans to have his first outing in the boxing ring in September. He already trains all the time, but the intensity will be increasing now. “I’ll be training six days a week, I’ll get 11 sessions in a week. Sunday is a total rest day …

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 …

STUDENTS from across Clare and the MidWest have been inspired to develop creative, innovative and entrepreneurial skills for life as part of this year’s EMPOWER programme. The free programme, designed and developed by Mary Immaculate College (MIC) and the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), saw Transition Year (TY) and Fifth Year students tasked with finding innovative solutions to some of the mobility challenges facing society. Now in its sixth year, the EMPOWER programme partnered with Jaguar Land Rover to give students a real hands-on approach to the tasks they faced. Held from June 7 to 17, the theme of this year’s programme was ‘The Future of Mobility’. The participating students spent a day at Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) R&D Software Engineering Centre in Shannon where they took part in a Hackathon, mentored by JLR engineers, to give students a first-person experience of handling their own Future of Mobility projects. According to Patricia O’Sullivan, Enterprise and Community Engagement Manager at MIC, this year’s programme was hugely successful. “EMPOWER …

CLARE Independent TD Michael McNamara has said he has received confirmation from the National Car Testing Service that two locations for an NCT centre have been identified in the Shannon area. In May the NCTS confirmed that the development of an NCT Centre at the Smithstown Industrial Estate Smithstown halted “due to significant contractual difficulties.” Deputy McNamara, who has been pressing for a second NCT Centre for County Clare, said he has received confirmation from the NCTS that two alternative locations have been identified. “Construction work on the new centre had already commenced at the Smithstown Industrial Estate as far back as last summer, including the erecting of the centre’s steel structure, and it was expected that the centre would be operational by the end of 2021,” he said. “It was disappointing to hear that the development would not be proceeding at the site. However, I am delighted to learn that two new site locations are currently being evaluated.” Deputy …

WOLFE Tones held the finals night of its Johnny Cregan Memorial Tournament last week. The hurling tournament for local national schools was organised to help promote the game with young people in the town, and to commemorate Johnny, who was a well known figure within the club for many years. After a blitz day on June 15, the finals night took place last Wednesday. Wolfe Tones Paul Hogan said, “We wanted to get the schools in Shannon engaged in hurling again, and to promote hurling within the town. “The best way to promote is through the schools and we felt that if we had a Shannon schools championship and get every school in Shannon to enter, it’d be one way of getting exposure of it into every school. “We’re going to do the same for gaelic football later on, after the Cumann na mBunscoil has taken place, but we just said that with the Clare hurlers going well we’ll tackle …