AFTER a new beginning earlier in 2024, Shannon Athletics Club now has over 200 members and its facilities have been improved, with further developments on the way. Club Chairperson Eamonn Cleary said it has been a great start for the re-formed club. “We’re up to 201 members, which is remarkable,” he said. “We started off with a very optimistic target of reaching 200 by the end of the year, which is a fairly large number, it makes us a fairly big club. “Within nine months we hit it, and it’s absolutely amazing to see how many people are interested in it. Hopefully it grows even further from there.” He said that talks on getting the club going started late last year, before really getting into gear in early 2024. “We had a meeting to kick it off at the end of last October,” he said. “We had a good bit of work to do to get up and running again …
Read More »Stage set for Johnny Fean
ON November 16, the Johnny Fean stage will be revealed at the Shannon Springs Hotel, while there will be a special concert on the night. “We have all the memorabilia in place, the stage is kitted out. It has neon light, all old photographs from the days of Zen Alligators, Horslips, all of that stuff. Every piece of memorabilia that is appropriate has been assessed. We have been working on it since January,” says Johnny’s brother Ray. The celebrated guitarist passed away in 2023 at the age of 71, having enjoyed a fantastic career. He was best known for his involvement with Horslips, who shot to fame in the 1970s with a blend of rock music mixed with traditional tunes. Their best known song was Dearg Doom, which was famously sampled for Ireland’s 1990 World Cup song Put ‘Em Under Pressure. Johnny was also involved in groups such as the Zen Alligators and Host. Ray said that the loss of …
Read More »Emelina seeks to muscle-in on world body building title
EWELINA Hrynkiewicz-Kucybala is currently preparing for the BodyBuilding World Championships, having enjoyed a lot of success already. “I am in the Republic of Ireland BodyBuilding Federation, I’m an Irish champion, a European champion and I’m competing in the World Championship in eight weeks in Tokyo,” she says. Ewelina competes in the Masters section of bikini wellness. “There are two main bikini categories, bikini fitness and bikini wellness,” she said. “The difference between the two is that in my category you have to have disproportion between the upper body muscles and the lower body muscles. “The lower body needs to be bigger so I mostly train legs and glutes.” The sport involves very specific training. “I follow a specific plan towards my goals, which is building the lower body muscles. I have a training programme that includes four gym sessions a week, one is upper body and three of them are lower body workouts,” she said. “I have cardio sessions as …
Read More »Speak up for mental health
ON World Mental Health Day last Thursday, local singer/songwriter Dylon Jack O’Connor released Speak Up, a new song that deals with issues such as mental health and suicide. The 26-year-old from Tullyvarraga works in the Texaco petrol station and his song is a response to the number of local deaths to suicide. “Two and a half years ago I lost one of my mates, Jyles Espiritu, to it. I didn’t really write it after that, but six months later there was another death and a month later there was another one,” he said. “There would have been five or six in the space of a year. When you’re constantly hearing those stories it’s kind of hard not to say your piece on it. “With my mate the ending ‘you can talk about it, you can let it out’, I wish that had been the case, that he had talked about it rather than leaving us with the effect of it.” …
Read More »Scannán faoi Sionna go breá
LOCAL artist Christina Bennett is working on a film about the early days of Shannon, entitled Sionna Go Breá. She took the title from a song that was frequently sung at a youth club she used to go to in the town back in the 1970s. “Seán Ó Nuanáin used to run a little club for us all called Club na Sionna. He arrived in 1964. He got very interested in the Irish language, and when he arrived there would have just been the flats,” she said. “They were building Drumgeely and Drumgeely Hall was there, it was the only community outlet they had. He set up a youth club delivered in Irish called Club na Sionna and when I went to it in the 70s we used to sing Sionna Go Breá every night and that’s what I called the film.” Like many others, Christina arrived from the North in the 1970s and is also working on a film …
Read More »Clonmoney school to tackle ‘toxic’ online atmosphere
WITH the impact of the internet being one of the most serious issues facing parents nowadays, Clonmoney National School have joined the Agree to Agree programme, which provides a framework for internet usage for children. Agree to Agree sees feedback gathered from parents, children and teachers, before a bespoke agreement for a school is reached. Clonmoney National School principal David McCormack said that it had been apparent that there were issues around social media usage, leading to the school going with Agree to Agree. “It was in response to a growing trend where many pupils felt isolated or excluded in their class settings if they weren’t using certain social media apps such as SnapChat and TikTok,” he said. “We have had children in our senior classes who have been on group chats on these platforms and this caused a lot of upset due to the nature of the interactions, some of them could be quite toxic. We were also aware …
Read More »Changes to bus service are ‘scandalous’ says councillor
SERIOUS concerns about the bus services for Shannon secondary schools were voiced at this week’s meeting of the Shannon Municipal District. Councillor David Griffin (FF) put forward a motion calling on the National Transport Authority “to progress the upgrading of stop infrastructure, including timetabling and shelters, on the newly amended 343 bus route, most especially at pick up and drop off points for school transport users”. He said that since the changes were introduced some weeks ago, councillors have been “firefighting” while he said there should have been far more consultation with parents and school principals. Councillor Griffin said that elected representatives have been treated with a lot of disrespect, and that even a few simple changes to the services could have made the rejigged services “more acceptable and palatable”. He pointed out that 280 young people in Sixmilebridge and another 110 in Newmarket are accessing buses, without proper stops in place or an adequate number of bus shelters. Councillor …
Read More »Expansion plan for free zone
The Shannon Airport Group is seeking planning permission for two new light industrial buildings in Ballymurtagh in the Shannon Free Zone West. In a statement the Shannon Airport Group said it “is seeking to add two new state-of-the-art industrial buildings to its commercial property portfolio at its Shannon Campus. “The Group has this week lodged a planning application to Clare County Council for the construction of a 63,000 square foot industrial unit and a 40,000 square foot research and development unit on a greenfield site in its Shannon Airport Business Park next to Shannon Airport. “If approved, this multi-million-euro investment will see two new buildings constructed to LEED international green building certification and NZEB/ZEB enabled building standards, that incorporate high energy performance throughout the building design process. “These developments would be the latest phase of a multi-year redevelopment project of the business park by The Shannon Airport Group, which has seen significant investment through the construction of several industrial and …
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