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Shannon

Children of the recession set to sit exams

WITHIN weeks, pupils who completed all their secondary education during recession will sit the Leaving Cert.Ciara Guinan and Meadhbh Halton of St Patrick’s Comprehensive and Aislinn Keogh and Gearóid McMahon of St Caimin’s Community School are among the tens of thousands who are going through this rite of passage.Three of the four started secondary school in September of 2008, just weeks before the ruinous bank guarantee, while another had just one year of second level done at that stage.All four are planning to go on to third level and with finances under strain, they are conscious of the cost of further education. The money Gearóid earned last summer, cutting silage and working for a builder, has been left largely intact and set aside for his education, while Meadhbh says she is thinking about taking a year off to work, before going on to further study.Gearóid hopes to study engineering at UL and after speaking to people working in the field, …

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Marty’s boxing clever

  HAVING called time on his own boxing career, Marty Hannan established the Shannon Boxing Club late last year and the next Katie Taylor or Bernard Dunne may be training in Smithstown under his direction. Having been involved in amateur boxing for many years in clubs in Ennis and Limerick, Marty finally turned professional but couldn’t make a living because the crowds buying tickets for fights were way down. “Within six months, four shows were called off. When you’re a professional boxer, you’re self-employed, your work is your training and you’re relying on the fight night to get paid and if it’s called off, you get nothing. That happened so many times and to be honest, I fell behind in bills,” he says of his abortive pro career. He is now self-employed, running a company that works with fitness instructors and personal trainers. And since last year, he has been working on bringing boxing to Shannon. “Marie Rowland would always …

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