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STAFF at Shannon company Lufthansa Technik are due to be briefed on plans for its future this morning. Sources this morning say that it is expected it will be sold to another local company. While the majority of the jobs are set to be retained, it is expected that there will be around 140 lay offs. The company has been undergoing a strategic review in recent months, looking at options including the sale of the plant and its potential closure. Going by the company’s 2020 annual report, it employed just over 500 people in Shannon last year.

AN historic area of Ennis with the highest vacancy rate in the town “risks further decline” unless regeneration action is taken, a meeting of the local authority has been warned. Calls have been made on the Ennis Municipal District by Councillors Johnny Flynn, Ann Norton and Clare Colleran Molloy to “urgently” develop an action plan for Chapel Lane. Speaking at the monthly meeting of the local authority Councillor Flynn suggested that Chapel Lane could be redeveloped to facilitate artists to live and work in the area, spearheading further regeneration of the town. “With the public realm upgrade of Parnell Street and the 29 lanes and bow-ways I believe that developing a regeneration of Chapel Lane to, for example assist artists and crafters working and living in the lane, could be a blueprint for regeneration of other areas of the historic town centre,” he said. Recalling the history of the lane he outlined that the Historic Town Atlas of Ennis map …

AN award winning Ennis restaurant has announced it is closing its doors for good. The owners of the Rowan Tree Cafe Bar on Harmony Row confirmed they have made the “difficult decision” to cease trading as of Monday of this week. According to a social media post the decision to close was made “due to increasing and unsustainable operational costs”. “We would like to thank all our loyal guests and customers for their valued custom over the years and most importantly thanks to our fantastic employees many of whom have been with us since the beginning, for their loyalty and dedicated hard work, we will miss the interactions with you all on a daily basis but we feel now is the right time to end this chapter,” stated Brian and Marianne O’Neill. They have urged anybody with a gift voucher to contact them by email at info@rowantreecafebar.ie before Friday.

AN ambulance was sent 175 kilometres from a station in County Galway to a road traffic collision in County Clare on Sunday afternoon, writes Pat Flynn. A motorcyclist was hospitalised following the incident which occurred in Kilkee shortly after 4.30pm. The collision, which happened on Gratten Street in the West Clare resort, involved a car and a motorcycle. It’s understood there was no National Ambulance Service (NAS) resource available in Clare or Limerick at the time and that paramedics were dispatched from Carraroe in Connemara over two hours and 175 kilometres away. A rapid response advanced paramedic (AP) unit was also sent to the scene from Galway. It’s understood the AP was attending another call in Gort when they were mobilised to the Kilkee incident. Firefighters from nearby Kilkee fire station were requested to attend the scene while a local off-duty paramedic also offered assistance until NAS personnel arrived. The motorcyclist, who may have suffered a medical episode before the …

A WORLD leading operator of cargo drone deliveries hopes to begin operating commerical deliveries from Shannon in the near future. SkyPorts has been running test flights from Shannon for a number of weeks after receiving a Light UAS Operator Certificate from the Irish Aviation Authority, the first one issued in the EU. The drones have been flying across the Shannon estuary over and back to Foynes of late, after the company received the cert, allowing for Beyond Visual Line of Sight drone operations. Already the company uses drones to make commercial and medical deliveries in the UK and in Singapore, and it’s expected that the same thing will happen from Shannon quite soon. Duncan Walker, CEO of SkyPorts said that testing at Shannon has gone well. “We’ve been flying pretty much every day for the past couple of weeks,” he told The Champion. “It’s been great, we’ve had some robust conditions, and it’s been going very, very well. It’s a …

SHANNON native Darina O’Dowd Padian has been appointed the new vice president of development for the Catholic Foundation in Dallas, Texas. As part of the leadership team, she will work with current and prospective donors to continue growing the nearly $300 million in assets managed by the Catholic Foundation, which focuses on charitable giving and philanthropy. Darina went to St Senan’s National School, St Patrick’s Comprehsive and after school to the Shannon College of Hotel Management. She went to America after winning a green card more than 25 years ago. ” I won one in 1994 and came over in 1995. I came to Dallas in 1995 and started working for the Four Seasons. The general manager at the time was a wonderful man from Cork called Jim Fitzgibbon. He was a fantastic mentor to all the Irish, there was plenty of us at that time working in the hotel.” Just three years ago she got into the non profit …

Music teacher Tatiana Timofeeva and student Sean Shannon speak to Jessica Quinn about music, the pandemic and moving on when a vital cultural outlet was closed THE closure of the acclaimed Maoin Cheoil an Chláir music school after 25 years in existence sent shockwaves across the county’s musical community in 2019. Among those affected by the loss of the Ennis-based school was piano teacher Tatiana Timofeeva. However the Russian native was determined to continue bringing music into the lives of others, and has now set up her very own music school in the Ennis home she shares with her husband, musician Bill McNamara. Among her students is 16-year-old Ennis pianist Sean Shannon who is set to showcase his talents in an upcoming episode of RTÉ’S Nationwide. Sean first began playing when he picked up a toy piano for fun, and just a few short years later he was wowing the glór audience. While preparing for Sean’s audition to the Royal …

ONE of the most famous items of clothing in the country has found its way into the hands of a Clare GAA club as the prize in a fundraising raffle, writes Gordon Deegan. Star of hit drama Normal People Paul Mescal has donated a signed pair of his iconic O’Neill’s GAA shorts to Cooraclare GAA club to help it raise €20,000 in a €10 raffle. Mescal, who set a few hearts racing when lining out in the shorts for sports scenes of the hit show last year has signed the shorts with the dedication ‘to the Normal People of Cooraclare’. You can win a signed pair of Paul Mescal's iconic G.A.A. shorts if you enter our prize draw. All proceeds go to the Club and tickets start at 10 Euro https://t.co/UIMNOSbLWG #PaulMescal #GAA @PaulMescalNews @mescal_paul and @GaaClare pic.twitter.com/CjndJeifGk — Cooraclare Gaa (@CooraclareGaa) October 7, 2021 The actor has close family links to the west Clare village. Paul’s father, Paul Snr was born in …