Shannon

SHANE O’Donnell wrote himself into the history books on Saturday and a child born early on Monday morning, in the most dramatic of circumstances, will bear his first name. Shannon’s Laura Hinsley gave birth to her fourth child and first son at the side of the road close to the Clare-Limerick border, after a dash to the hospital didn’t quite succeed. Describing the morning, she said, “My husband was doing 160km going in the road but I knew once we hit Bunratty that it was coming. He had to pull over across from the Two Mile Inn. We went from flying down the road to pulling in and the baby was just there! He delivered the baby, made sure it was crying and put his hoody around it and drove on again to the hospital; it had happened in a matter of seconds. I’d say we were only stopped for about a minute and a half, it was that fast. …

DOZENS of concerned people attended a public meeting on Tuesday night at the Oakwood Arms about the odours that have lingered around Shannon in the last few weeks. The anger at the meeting, which was attended by representatives of Clare County Council, but not the EPA, was palpable. There were different views on the type of odour causing the problem, with several people saying it resembled sewage and others saying it was like raw eggs. Many expressed their concerns about the impact upon their health and said they are worried about the impact of air quality on children. There was also much anger after Clare County Council engineer, Sean Ward, acknowledged that the local sewage treatment plant is not adequate, but that there is no prospect of it being improved in the immediate future because the millions required to do so is not available. The meeting was chaired by local man Chris Price and with emotions running high, he had …

WITH autumn now upon us and dark evenings prompting a more sedentary lifestyle, Shannon Chamber has enlisted the help of sport and recreation expert, Dave Mahedy, Director of Sport and Recreation at the University of Limerick, to help members and business people generally to prepare a personal programme for a healthier lifestyle. Mr Mahedy will deliver a presentation, entitled ‘Fit for Work, Project Me: A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body’ in GECAS Shannon next Tuesdayevening  from 5.30pm to 7pm.   The event is being run by Shannon Chamber, with the support of GECAS, as part of Chamber Week, which runs from  September 16 – 20 nationally. Making the announcement, Shannon Chamber’s chief executive Helen Downes said, “Summer is a time for the outdoors and exercise comes naturally but it’s difficult to find the routine as we head into winter. It’s easy to fall into a sedentary pattern, yet exercise is so important for our well-being, it relaxes and stimulates …

THE prospect of a crematorium being built in Shannon is back on the agenda again, after a number of years of silence on the issue. Some years ago, former Clare county councillors Tony McMahon and the late Sean Hillery proposed the development of a crematorium at Illaunmanagh. Nothing has been heard about it for some time but at the very end of this week’s meeting of Shannon electoral area councillors, town manager Bernadette Kinsella said while the original parties are not involved, another party is now interested in proceeding and it will be proposed that the lands in question be disposed of. Ms Kinsella also said the third party is in the process of applying for an extension of planning permission. Attending the meeting, Councillor Gerry Flynn, who had opposed the development, restated his opposition to it. After originally getting the green light from Clare county planners, the decision was appealed to An Bord Pleanála and in 2009 it granted …

In a three-part series, Owen Ryan speaks to some of Clare’s leading business figures, beginning with Shannon Airport chief executive Neil Pakey. Next week, Irish Hotels Federation president Michael Vaughan of Lahinch will be featured   SHANNON’S performance is important for everyone in Clare. Many of us wouldn’t even live in the county but for it. If it weren’t for the tourists it brings to the county, huge numbers of jobs and businesses wouldn’t exist. Its Heathrow and US links have helped make the Mid-West of Ireland a hub for multi-national companies. The decline of the airport, which had its worst year since the ’80s in 2012, is a serious problem and a Scot has been brought in to get it back on track, 52-year-old Neil Pakey, the new chief executive, who was appointed in May. At the moment, he is commuting to Clare and heading back to Britain at the weekends, where his family are based. “My two boys …

Shannon Airport’s steady recovery in passenger numbers continued for a third consecutive month in August, figures revealed by the airport today show. Passenger numbers for the month show that 170,000 people travelled through Shannon in August, a 3% increase on August 2012. The increase comes on the back of strong gains also in June – the first time in five years growth was seen in month-over-month figures – and July. Transatlantic services again showed the greatest uplift in August, with 35% more passengers travelling between Shannon and the US/Canada compared to 12 months ago.

“RATS the size of cats” are making themselves known and are causing issues for residents in various parts of  Shannon. The town council heard this week of one case where a child can’t be let play on a lawn because of the amount of vermin, while there are issues in a few parts of the town. The matter was raised by Councillor Cathy McCafferty, who called on Clare County Council to “take urgent and immediate action to address the rodent problem in Aidan Park  and Finian Park that is a cause of much concern for residents.” She said that several people had contacted her about the issue. “Over the summer we had a number of complaints over the rat infestation in Aidan and Finian Parks and nothing appears to have been done.”

FOR the last 40 years, children have been receiving education in prefabs at St Conaire’s Primary School but that’s coming to an end this week. A new extension has been built, removing the need for them. Speaking on Monday, headmaster Peter Walsh gave some details of the new extension. “We’re opening it on Thursday. There’ll be three new classrooms and I suppose we’ll have been 60 and 70 children there, about 22 or 23 in each room. They’ll be replacing three prefabs that we had rented for about seven years.” He said he is very pleased with the standard of the new classrooms. “They’re fantastic, built to the highest spec. They were designed by Paul Conway and built by Dermot Custy Construction. They’re excellent. They have the best of insulation and they were designed for modern education needs. They were designed to fit an awkward site as well, so there was a lot of work done between the school and …