Tag Archives: Mary Considine

IN Clare, we are rarely at the top of the political or business agenda. This is a peripheral county, the kind of place that advocates of the neo-liberal economic approach of recent years are happy to sacrifice. As the Mid-West’s manufacturing industry was being lost to low-wage economies 10 years ago, we were told it was just the natural order of things and to suck it up. When tech giants go to our capital, rather than to the Clares and Kerrys, we’re told something similar. When previous broadband plans were shelved, it certainly was not a serious problem and as our airport declines, people like departing Transport Minister Shane Ross would find it almost preposterous that Government be required to do something about it. Just over 70,000 people travelled between Shannon and Newark in 2019, many of them high-spending American tourists. This helped keep Clare’s tourism sector going, allowed people to pay mortgages, put shoes on children’s feet and enabled …

THERE are concerns being raised about the future of Shannon Airport, as it lost a key transatlantic route at the weekend, which local tourism businesses say will affect them badly. United Airlines operated a Shannon-Newark service from April to late October and while it had been suspended for this year, it was expected it would resume in 2021. However, that will not be happening. It is another body blow for Shannon, which had been hopeful of a positive 2020, up until Covid-19 struck. Although in the state of New Jersey, Newark is just a few miles outside of New York City and the United route was an important factor in bringing thousands of American visitors to this part of Ireland. On Saturday, Shannon Group chief executive Mary Considine sent an email, which has been seen by The Clare Champion, to the newly-formed Oireachtas cross-party group on Shannon, in which she appealed for Government support. “We were aware that they [United] …

EVEN as passenger numbers dropped at Shannon Airport in 2019, profits for Shannon Group went upwards. According to its annual report, which has now been published, profit after tax for 2019 was €21.637 million, up from €20.915m in 2018. However, 2018 had seen a sum of €5.8m spent on a voluntary redundancy scheme. Writing in the report, chairman Rose Hynes described the 2019 performance as “satisfactory”. “This is a positive result in what was a challenging year for aviation and tourism in the regions,” she claimed. Of Shannon’s disappointing passenger numbers, Ms Hynes wrote, “It was disappointing that after six successive years of growth at the airport, passenger numbers were down by 8% to 1.71 million in 2019, due mainly to the global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX Jet on safety grounds. However, we redoubled our efforts to secure additional services and ended the year with the announcement of three new services to Paris Charles de Gaulle, Vienna and …

THE Board of the Shannon Group PLC has today (Friday) announced the appointment of Mary Considine as the company’s new Chief Executive. With over 25 years’ experience in industry, Mary is currently the Deputy CEO and CFO for the Group and has been Acting CEO since June 2019.     Mary, who is a native of Lissycasey, takes up the position with immediate effect.  Her appointment is for a seven-year term.  She is married to Éibhear and has three children. She is a qualified accountant and has extensive experience in aviation, finance, governance and commercial, having previously held a number of senior roles within Shannon Group. She was appointed Deputy CEO of Shannon Group (CFO, Company Secretary & Chief Risk Officer) in 2016, and subsequently appointed Acting CEO of Shannon Group in June 2019. Mary was appointed President of Shannon Chamber in June 2018.  She is also a member of the Governing Authority of Mary Immaculate College. Rose Hynes, Chairman …

SHANNON Group got a share of stick at Monday’s meeting with the County Council, but at least one element of it was undue. In his speech to the meeting, Mayor of Clare Cathal Crowe criticised various decisions made, and also claimed that Clare’s local representatives had been ignored at a recent celebration. “It was disappointing that the airport held a significant event just last week to mark the 80th anniversary of its operations and didn’t invite the Chief Executive Pat Dowling, Councillor Gerry Flynn (Chairman of the Shannon District) or myself, as Mayor of Clare, to attend. “Shannon Group must do better to improve its working relationship with this County Council.” However some time later when Acting Shannon Group CEO Mary Considine responded to questions raised by members, she said that there actually had not been a celebratory event to mark the 80th anniversary, although Shannon had used the date to help with its own promotion.   Owen Ryan