Tag Archives: Covid-19

For more than 30 years The Poetry Collective has been bringing together writers from across Clare and the Mid West. After taking a break during Covid the Collective are now back, recently hosting their biggest ever poetry reading and open mic event in glór, which co-founder Arthur Watson describes as being “like the Guinness Book of Records for poetry”. The Clare Champion is sitting down with Arthur and fellow poets Patrick Stack, Marion Moynihan, John Killeen and Sinead Nic Seoda who reflect on what it means to be a part of the group, the growth of poetry in Clare, the Collective’s history and its plans for the future. By its very nature creating poetry is a solitary endeavour, however through the Collective vital positive connections are being made bridging together a wide range of diverse writers. Patrick explains, “Writing poetry is a lonely thing. You don’t know, at least from my experience, if the writing is any good or not. …

SHANNON Airport Group today announced that it had over 1.51 million passengers in 2022, bringing it back to 88% of its pre-pandemic numbers, despite travel still being impacted in the early part of last year. “The accelerated pace of the rebound in air travel from Shannon has exceeded our expectations and shows the pent-up desire for international travel following the lifting of pandemic travel restrictions,” said CEO Mary Considine. European services recovered strongly in 2022 with over 532,000 passengers travelling through Shannon. This actually surpassed 2019 pre-pandemic levels by 7% and was a 225% increase on 2021. Shannon recorded over 638,000 passengers on its UK services in 2022, a 309% increase on the previous year.After an absence of almost two years, transatlantic services returned in March 2022 and saw a strong rebound of almost 240,000 passengers on services to New York (JFK), Boston and Newark. A further boost is expected from May 2023 when a new daily nonstop seasonal service …

IT’S A far cry from the world of European finance to the buzz of the brewery, but Maeve Sheridan has made the change with ease. She left behind her day job in banking in Luxembourg to go into business with her brother, Michael Eustace, a civil engineer by profession. Today, along with Bridger Kelleher their brewer, the trio at Western Herd is brewing up a storm, with more craft beers than ever and a newly-refurbished and extended premises in Kilcloher.  Like hundreds of small family businesses the length and breath of Ireland, Western Herd came up against unprecedented obstacles during the pandemic. With most of their sales being through pubs and restaurants, prospects looked bleak until the natural drive to adapt and innovate kicked in.  The siblings are no strangers to innovation, both of them having changed careers radically to set up Western Herd. When the recession hit, Michael turned to managing a busy Dublin bar. Always a keen home …

PASSENGER numbers at Shannon Airport exceeded one million for the first nine months of the year, indicating the strength of its recovery since the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Up to the end of September of this year 1,050,916 passengers had come through Shannon Airport. This represents 82.4% of the amount it carried in the first nine months of 2019, the last full year before Covid-19 shut down aviation across the world. The percentage would have been even higher had Covid not still been a factor in the early part of 2022. Shannon saw less than half the number of passengers in January 2022 that it did in January 2019, which was a relatively worse performance than in any of the eight months since. In addition, February was the second worst month by comparison with 2019. Shannon Airport Group CEO Mary Considine said it has been a positive year and that routes to Europe and the US have performed very well, …

CLARE people have been urged to book their Covid-19 booster appointment online at HSE vaccination clinics. The Vaccination Centre in the former Outpatients’ Department at Ennis Hospital has reopened for booster vaccinations. In a statement issued to the Clare Champion, the UL Hospitals’ Group outlined booking a booster appointment online is an easy and convenient way by selecting a time and date that suits the individual person. People seeking a booster vaccine have also been advised to check with participating GPs and pharmacies. People who are more than 16 weeks pregnant are also invited to book their next booster at a HSE vaccination centre or from participating GPs and Pharmacies. The HSE and Children’s Health Ireland will shortly be inviting, through their parents, children aged five to 11 years who are immunocompromised and now due to have their first booster, following completion of their primary Covid-19 vaccine course. People aged 50 – 54 will be offered their second booster vaccine …

A WARNING has been issued about the impact of long Covid on the health system, with new figures suggesting that over 30,000 people in the Midwestern region are impacted.  Medical experts have outlined that up to 200 symptoms are linked to the condition, which persist from between three months and two years of contracting Covid-19.  Data compiled by Independent TD Denis Naughten suggest that 8,368 people in Clare have long Covid, with chronic symptoms that including brain fog, cognitive issues, exhaustion, sleeplessness, and other psychological and physical difficulties. The figures are based on an analysis of data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), showing that there had been 41,055 positive PCR tests taken in this county, up to August 10.  The long Covid estimate for County Limerick is 14,317; while for Tipperary, it is 10,511.  Deputy Naughten has provided the first analysis and county-by-county breakdown of the 336,451 adults nationally who are likely to be suffering from long Covid …

NO part of Clare has less than 89% of its population vaccinated, according to the Central Statistics Office, but the level of people who have taken boosters is far lower. West Clare has the highest level of vaccination in the county, with more than 95.8% of people aged 12 or over there having taken it. The Ennistymon, Killaloe and Ennis Municipal Districts all had vaccination rates of between 93.6 and 94.7%. The Shannon Municipal District had the lowest level of vaccination in Clare, with approximately 90% of people there vaccinated. Of those who got fully vaccinated in the Ennistymon Municipal District, 69% went on to get boosted also. The Kilrush Municipal District is just behind at 68%, in Ennis and Killaloe the figure is 66%, while in the Shannon Municipal District it is 65%. All this shows that over one third of Clare people have not taken boosters, for one reason or another. Across the country in 90% of Municipal …

FOUR percent of all passengers to Irish airports in 2021 went through Shannon, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show. Obviously Covid-19 was very disruptive to aviation last year, making for a very strange year. Shannon’s 4% was ahead of Cork which had 3%, but Cork was closed for a couple of months due to works on its runway. Dublin was hugely dominant in terms of Irish aviation, with 90% of all passengers. Shannon had 322,162 passengers during the year, only one fifth of the 2019 figure, just before the pandemic. The figure was almost 50,000 ahead of 2020. Shannon dealt with 4,836 different flights over the course of the year. The three most used links with Shannon were all London airports. The busiest route was Stansted with 63,624 passengers, while 33,797 passengers travelled on the London Gatwick route and 24,050 on London Heathrow. The Heathrow services were significantly reduced in 2021 and the figure would presumably have been …