Shannon

SPEAKING before her term as Mayor of Shannon ended this week, Mary Brennan said she had an enjoyable and busy year as the town’s first citizen.

THIRTY new jobs will be created in Shannon when discount retailer Dealz opens its 13th store in Ireland this Thursday.Miss Clare Hazel McMahon will be on hand to kick-start the celebrations as they cut the ribbon to mark the opening of the new store in the town centre.Located at unit 40A, SkyCourt Shopping Centre, with a retail space of 6,900ft2, Dealz Shannon is the newest edition to the Dealz portfolio. The new store brings the total number of jobs created in Ireland to date to over 390.The new store is taking up the unit vacated by another discount store, BuyLo, which closed last January with the loss of 12 jobs, just seven months after the franchise model owned by the Barry Group, one of Ireland’s leading wholesale distribution companies, set up in SkyCourt.BuyLo store manager, Sean Leo confirmed at the time the decision was taken for commercial reasons and he paid tribute to his extremely dedicated staff.He said the decision …

WHEN it comes to spelling, young Shannon girl Emily Meehan is in a league of her own.The St John’s Primary School pupil has backed up her success at county level by earning the right to represent the province at the Spelling Bee All-Ireland final, to be held in the RTÉ studios later this week, where the national champion will be crowned live on RTÉ 2fm’s Tubridy.If she manages to secure that accolade, 12-year-old Emily will win a library of books for her school.The Eason Spelling Bee with Tubridy, now in its second year, once again teamed up with RTÉ 2fm to deliver Ireland’s ultimate spelling contest and together have made it bigger and better than before. This year saw the introduction of the County Bees, which took place in each of the 32 counties nationwide, followed by four provincial finals broadcast live on RTÉ 2fm’s Tubridy, culminating in the grand final this Friday.Speaking at the Munster Spelling Bee in the …

CLARE doesn’t have a female TD and just one out of 32 county councillors is a woman but Shannon town councillors don’t feel steps need to be taken to encourage women to stand for election.

A RATHER unfortunate row between town councillors and the local twinning association was resolved at Tuesday night’s meeting of the town council, at which two representatives of the association spoke.Pat Costello and John O’Brien of the twinning association attended and said upset had been caused following the reporting of comments made at an earlier meeting of the council.

MAYOR of Shannon Mary Brennan is about to complete her term of office and this week she said the 2012 Mayor’s Ball had been a success.

A SUBCONTRACTOR this week told The Clare Champion he has twice been left unpaid following works on the affordable housing development at Glaise na Rinne, adjacent to Cluain Airne.A spokesman for Galway firm Conrock Ltd said the company is down over €60,000 and have laid the blame at Clare County Council’s door. The company are currently considering a picket of the site, in protest.In a statement, the company outlined the circumstances it has faced. “On two separate occasions, Clare County Council entered into contracts with two different building contractors, who subsequently turned out to have inadequate financial backing to complete the projects for which they had been commissioned. Not only is this a gross mishandling of scarce public funds but it has also resulted in smaller, sub-contractors like ourselves being left without payment for works done.“We were contracted on both occasions to carry out the mechanical services (plumbing, heating, ventilation, gas installation and so on) on the Glaise na Rinne …

UNICEF Ireland and Aer Lingus’ Change for Good cycle wheeled into Shannon at the weekend as part of a trip that will see it visiting the airline’s largest bases in Cork, Belfast and Dublin as well as Shannon Airport. Marking the 15th anniversary of the campaign, which has already raised $15 million for children around the world, the cycle is being undertaken by Brian Rutter of Aer Lingus’ cabin crew.“While I’m cycling across the country, the Change For Good campaign is being extended and will run right through until June 1,” explained Brian. “Normally, we would collect spare change from people on international flights only but for this week, we’ll be collecting on every Aer Lingus flight. So please, if you are on one of our flights, please give generously.” Brian was one of a group of Aer Lingus, UNICEF Ireland ambassadors who visited Zambia in February of this year to see how the money raised was changing lives there. …