News

THERE WAS good news for Clare this Monday with the announcement of 25 new jobs and the promise of more to come from Lufthansa Technik Turbine Shannon (LTTS). Announcing the further expansion of its business in Ireland with the opening of a new 2,000 M2 facility and the creation of 25 jobs in Shannon, LTTS said it was responding to significant worldwide increase in demand for its services. LTTS, a subsidiary of Germany’s Lufthansa Technik AG, is experiencing the increase market demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft engines and components following the recovery of the aviation sector after the Covid-19 pandemic. LTTS has been operating in Ireland since 1992 and employs more than 300 people in Shannon, Kildare and Dublin. The current expansion plans mean that the company urgently needs 25 highly skilled aircraft mechanics who will be based at its new facility in the mid-west, working on state-of-the-art aviation technology and equipment. It is expected …

THERE WERE eight awards for Clare at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) last week, including an individual win for one Scoil Mhuire Ennistymon student. Alanna Hayes won the Senior Individual section of the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category for her project ‘An Analysis of Routing Algorithms for Electronic Design’. Meanwhile, April O’Donnell, from Mary Immaculate Secondary School Lisdoonvarna, took third in the Intermediate Individual section of the Biological & Ecological category for her project, ‘Is the Clumping Behaviour of Mussels (Mytilus edulis) affected by the Presence of a Predator?’. There were sponsored category awards won by Clare projects in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences and Biological and ecological categories also. Oisin Jackson, Mary Immaculate Secondary School Lisdoonvarna won the Met Eireann award in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category for his ‘Statistical analysis of the relationship between precipitation and river discharge in the Aille River catchment area’. Meanwhile in the biological and ecological category, …

THE Feed Clare Foodbank has resumed operations at the Kincora Building in the Town Centre on Friday mornings. Karen Cassidy is involved in running it, and she said there had been huge demand for its support in the run up to Christmas. “We didn’t open on Christmas week, that would have been the 23rd. The week before we had a double week, rather than opening a few days before Christmas, and I think we had our highest numbers ever on that day. We were so busy, my goodness, we really were busy.” When she spoke to the Champion last Friday, she said the first Foodbank of 2023 hadn’t been overly hectic. “Today wasn’t too bad. I think people probably weren’t too sure if we were open or not. It’s always like that in January, it takes people a week or two to realise it’s back open again, even though we always advertise that it’s open.” Extremely high inflation has made …

An EAST Clare woman, who is living in deplorable living conditions without any central heating, electricity or running water in her mobile home, has vowed to challenge an enforcement notice about her accommodation in the “District, Circuit or High Court”. Clare County Council has been accused of breaking its own rules after the planning section confirmed it doesn’t wish to take any further action concerning an enforcement notice issued on December 11, 2017 relating to the alleged “unauthorised storage of two mobile homes, one caravan and ancillary services” by its own housing department at Ballymalone, Tuamgraney. Duncan Young, who has lived in Ballymalone for some years and complained about this planning crux, believes the council has now set a new precedent by allowing a person to live in a mobile home allegedly without any planning permission for the last five years, which could be replicated by others in Clare. A council spokesman said: “As this remains an open and ongoing …

Gardaí had to be called to neutralise a potentially serious situation after a man with a knife locked himself into a toilet on board a bus in Clare on Sunday. It’s understood that the bus was taking a group on a sight-seeing trip to North Clare when an incident occurred on board. It’s believed an altercation involving two individuals broke out on the bus. The driver is believed to have turned off the M18 motorway at Shannon and made his way towards the town while alerting Gardaí. The coach was intercepted by a number of Garda marked and unmarked units close to Shannon Airport. One of the people involved is said to have locked himself into the onboard toilet and would not come out for Gardaí when requested. During their conversations with him, Gardaí established that the man had a knife. The passengers and driver were taken safely off and away from the bus while Gardaí dealt with the incident. Additional …

NIALL has left the building. After 41 years at Shannon Airport, many of them as its operations director, Niall Maloney has now retired. Always hugely enthusiastic about his work and the success of Shannon, this week he said he had really enjoyed his career. “It has been a wonderful experience. Would I want to do it again? I’d absolutely do it again. I loved the airport, loved my job, but I knew it was time to move on. It’s about energy, about new thought processes. I really wish Niall Kerins well as the new director.” Shannon airport has been at the heart of the Maloney family, with Niall’s father working there before him, having been headhunted by Dr Brendan O’Regan in the early 1950s. Niall’s own career started there in the early 1980s. “I was very fortunate that I got a temporary job in the airport in 1981. I thought I was going to be there for six months but …

DESPITE much speculation that there could be progress on the transfer of Shannon Heritage to Clare County Council pre-Christmas, it hasn’t happened as mid-January approaches. Clare TD Joe Carey this week said that no progress has been made as of yet. “It’s still where it was, they are trying to come up with a package to get it over the line with the Council,” . The lead department is the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is under the stewardship of Darragh O’Brien. It does involve other departments too, but that’s the main one. There have been efforts to get this over the line, but they have been unsuccessful.” He called for a new impetus to resolve the matter. “I have spoken to all the stakeholders in this repeatedly and we need a resolution for the tourism offering in the county. With the New Year I think there should be a new concentration of minds to get this …

MILFORD Care Centre’s 11th annual fundraising 10km run/walk will take place on Sunday, February 12. A key fundraising event to support the Centre’s services, it will start at 12 noon and promises to be a memorable day. While large crowds of participants are expected in person to participate safely in the 10km, the option will also be there to partake virtually. The event kindly supported by DELL Technologies and Stryker is open to runners and walkers of all levels and abilities with the proceeds going directly to support the work of Milford Care Centre in the Mid-West. Launching the event, David Kilcoyne, Ireland and Munster Rugby star said, “I am thrilled to be supporting and bring awareness to Milford Care Centre’s 10km run/walk this year. “I am very proud to be associated with this event, the work carried out by Milford Care Centre in our community is extremely important and valuable to the Mid-West region. “I hope you can support …