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ANGER has greeted a decision by Aer Lingus to cut back on its services from Heathrow to Shannon Airport, this week, in order to meet the London airport’s new rules on passenger numbers. Senator Timmy Dooley has expressed his frustration at decision of Aer Lingus to pull the 7.20pm daily Shannon to Heathrow flight for this week. The Irish airline had said Aer Lingus decided that the flight being cut this week will be the 7.20pm service from Heathrow to Shannon. The service is the last of the day to Shannon. Anyone looking to travel to Shannon this week from Heathrow will only have the options of the 9.20am or the 2.45pm service. All airlines were told to cut flights from Heathrow in order to bring the number of outgoing passengers moving through the airport down to 100,000 a day between now and September. “Shannon Airport has again lost out as aviation decision makers continue their obsession with Dublin Airport,” …

MINISTER Heather Humphreys was in Lahinch this morning to officially open the Lahinch Leisure Centre, a shining example of smart energy usage and generation. As part of its €6m renovation and expansion, the Centre has enjoyed an extensive energy retrofit under the auspices of the Tipperary Energy Agency. Now, alongside its top of the range insulation and ground source heat pump that heats the pools, solar panels on the roof generate much of the centre’s energy requirements. Alongside that, the ductwork throughout the centre is made from recycled materials. Indeed, no fewer than 3,717 plastic bottle have been repurposed to this effect The centre’s green journey began in September 2018 when engineers from the agency completed an energy audit to understand how much energy the building was using and pinpoint necessary works to upgrade the facility. Following the audit Tipperary Energy Agency were appointed Mechanical and Electrical Design Engineers and Energy Consultants. Prior to the retrofit, the leisure centre (part …

AN ENNIS Councillor has hit out at “anti-social criminals” creating havoc in their own homes and neighbourhoods.  In a motion tabled at the July meeting of the local authority, Councillors Johnny Flynn, Clare Colleran Molloy and Pat Daly, called for a “multi-agency emergency response team” to address the problem. They also sought greater protection for the children living in homes with those engaging in anti-social behaviour.   Councillor Flynn said that despite the great work of the Council’s tenancy enforcement unit, there are “communities in crisis”. “This is because of a very small number of  people,” he said, “who are basically criminals and getting away with it. The tenancy team is already answering around 500 calls a month and doing an extraordinary job, but there are people living in terrible situations, locked into mortgages, who cannot move away from these issues.” Councillor Colleran Molloy pointed out that the tenancy enforcement team is not a permanent one. “We want the tenancy …

JUST a few short months after undergoing her third spinal surgery, 20-year-old Ennis student Derinn Finnerty has taken the crown of Miss Clare. Derinn, who is studying Global Commerce at NUIG, was diagnosed with severe scoliosis at 16 years of age however she has been determined not to let this stop her following her dreams. She has now been named among the 37 finalists vying for the coveted Miss Ireland 2022 title in this the competition’s 75th Jubilee year. She tells us, “It’s just been amazing, it’s been crazy since I was crowned. Every day there is something new to do, and I’m loving it. “I’ve had so many people wishing me well. I’m just so honoured to be able to represent the county.” Derinn is determined to raise awareness of scoliosis, a condition which results in an abnormal curvature of the spine, and she is working with Irish charity Straight Ahead to raise funds to support children waiting on …

Féidhlim Harty, director of an environmental consultancy company tells Bridget Ginnity, how being a bad windsurfer led him to specialising in reed bed system design and other eco-friendly sewage options. For as long as I can remember, my family was interested in environmental things of various sorts, whether it was beach clean-ups, chemical or sewage pollution in Cork Harbour area. My grandmother was Myrtle Allan of Ballymaloe House. When she was president of Euro-Toques, the global society of chefs, she had us children filling envelopes and addressing them to all corners of the globe. We watched the early European legislation on food being developed and it was a real education that you can bring your opinions directly to the table and decisions will be made that reflects that input. I set up my business in constructed wetlands as an activism measure in the ’90s. I wanted to clean up Cork Harbour using reed bed systems, mainly because I was a …

MEMBERS of the regional health forum for the Midwest are being urged to make the case for the restoration of services at Ennis General, when they meet senior hospital officials next week.  In a statement, the Midwest Hospital Campaign, Clare, outlined that a meeting is to take place next Tuesday (July 19) between the management of University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and forum members representing Clare, Limerick and Tipperary. It follows a unanimous call for the restoration of Emergency Department (ED) services in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s in Limerick, at the May meeting of the HSE West Regional Health Forum. The request for a follow-up meeting was made by Clare Green Councillor Liam Grant and Tipperary Independent Councillor Séamie Morris. “The Midwest Hospital Campaign Clare calls on all members of the forum to use this opportunity to advance the case to upgrade Ennis Hospital, to a model 3, which would mean the return of  24/7 Emergency Department to the county,” …

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 …

POPULATION projections in the forthcoming County Development Plan have been described as “utterly redundant”, on foot of new Census data.  Addressing the July meeting of the local authority, Councillor Cillian Molloy pointed to figures showing a population increase in Clare of 7.2% since 2016. Meanwhile, the plan allows growth of 9.94% up to 2029. In light of that, Councillor Murphy had asked that clarity be sought from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR). Referring to a response from the OPR, which said it had no comment to make, Councillor Murphy was sharply critical.  “We have already reached 75% of our future projected population growth out to 2029 even  before submissions to the draft have been taken into consideration and the unelected body, who will run a rule over what we are told repeatedly is our County Development Plan, will not offer us any clarity as to what we can do …