Tag Archives: McNamara

AN ENGLISH woman of Clare descent is appealing to the people of Clare to help her trace her long lost biological grandfather. Born in Coventry, Louise McNamara has always known that half of her family tree was from County Clare. Her father, Francis McNamara, was born in London in 1956 but was unofficially adopted soon after his birth and has no memory of his birth mother or father. After years of research, the family managed to learn the identity of Francis’ mother, who was originally from Ennistymon. Unfortunately, Francis’ mother had passed away shortly before the family learned of her identity. Last Christmas, Louise McNamara, convinced her father to undergo DNA testing in an effort to discover the identity of his Clare father. The DNA tests revealed that both of Mr McNamara’s parents come from the West Clare or South Clare area and, to the families great surprise, the test also showed a match in the Ennis area. This match, …

A TOXIC culture of bullying faces volunteers with the Irish Coastguard, two Clare TDs have claimed in the wake of the decision last week to stand down the Doolin unit. Six members of the north Clare unit resigned early last week, causing the unit to be benched. One source that is close to the Doolin Coastguard said that claims of “bullying and harassment” that led to the departure of the six volunteers from the unit was not caused by the 12 remaining members. Speaking in the Dáil, independent Michael McNamara said, “We need to get the Doolin Coast Guard unit reinstated but we need to address the issues that led us to where we are because the reality is there is a toxic working environment in the Coast Guard station in Doolin and there has been for some time. “Unfortunately it is not unique to Doolin; it exists the length and breadth of this country. There is a lack of …

McNamara ribs Tanaiste over previous role in Shannon appointments SHANNON Group badly needs to see a new chairperson appointed, Clare TD Michael McNamara told the Dáil last week. He also taunted the Tanaiste regarding the role he played in having Rose Hynes reappointed as its chair in the past. “It has been an extraordinarily difficult year for Shannon Airport. Throughout much, if not all, of the past year, it has not had a chair for its board of directors. “Strategic decisions need to be made at Shannon regarding its aviation business but also in respect of Shannon Heritage and its future. The chair of a board of directors is there to provide strategic guidance,” he said. “When the Tánaiste was Taoiseach, Shane Ross was his Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, and I am told he wrote a book about the experience. “He rang the then chair of Shannon Airport to tell her he was not going to continue her …

SHANNON Group CEO Mary Considine this afternoon expressed her sympathy for the Aer Lingus workers about to lose their jobs. “Our thoughts are with the Shannon based Aer Lingus employees impacted by this decision. It is extremely disappointing news for them. “This announcement highlights once again the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic across the aviation sector here. Restoring regional connectivity and international travel will be pivotal to economic recovery as we emerge from the effects of the pandemic. Critical to this will be the urgent implementation of a clear road map and timelines for the restart of aviation. “Aer Lingus remains a valued partner for Shannon Group, and we value our long-established and continuing relationship with the airline. We are committed to working with them and all our aviation partners on the restoration of vital services to and from Shannon Airport which are critical for business and tourism sectors.” Clare TD Michael McNamara slammed the Government’s aviation policy in …

MORE than one in four people in Clare’s workforce are currently on the live register or receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment. There are more than three times as many people in Clare getting support due to lack of employment than was the case in February 2020, before Covid-19 had reached Ireland. By any pre-Pandemic standards, the figures are incredible, reflecting a level of unemployment that would be unthinkable at any other time. This week Clare TD Michael McNamara has warned that Ireland’s approach to the pandemic over the past year will lead to economic ruin, while he compared the lack of dissenting voices to the latter years of the Celtic Tiger, when there was little criticism of economic policies that brought disaster. “The key is to work safely but we didn’t make an attempt to work safely, we just stopped working altogether. I’m not aware of any country in Europe that has dealt with it the way we have, which …

A VEHEMENT critic of the State’s approach to dealing with Covid-19 for some months, Clare TD Michael McNamara has again slammed the latest policy move, as Ireland switches to so-called level five restrictions. “I don’t know really what these levels mean, how we arrived in this paradigm of levels that determine what constraints we have on our lives, our ability to earn a livelihood and our basic right to liberty. I don’t know how we ended up here and I don’t know what purpose it serves,” he said this week. The Scariff man said that Ireland has had the toughest restrictions in Europe for months now, and it has not succeeded in suppressing the virus. He questioned how justifiable imposing significant restrictions is. “How much do you detain somebody, an ordinary healthy person, who doesn’t suffer from any mental illness, for how long is it legitimate to detain them for their own protection?” Mr McNamara said that while very severe …

THE Government’s newly published plan for dealing with Covid-19, Resilience and Recovery, had relatively little to say about aviation, and no measure that will bring immediate comfort to Shannon, which is facing the potential loss of Ryanair services for the winter, along with its Aer Lingus transatlantic services. Essentially it proposes that Ireland apply the principles of a European Commission regime to have a common approach to travel within the EU. “It is proposed that Ireland broadly support the European Commission proposals and should continue to engage with Member States and the Commission to develop a regime that is consistent with public health requirements, cognisant of public of resources and capacity, while supportive of our need to support air transport,” it states. Clare TD Michael McNamara was far from pleased with what was set out. “It’s entirely vague and unsatisfactory. It’s almost as if things are going fine and we don’t really need to address this, when, in fact, our …

WITH real fears that Aer Lingus will now replace Shannon-US flights with UK-US ones, Clare TD Michael McNamara says that the decision to sell the State’s shares in the former national airline was a mistake. “Certainly selling all of them (the Aer Lingus shares) was unwise, the Government has little or no leverage over Aer Lingus now. They have as much leverage over Aer Lingus now as they do over Ryanair and Michael O’Leary has demonstrated the level that they have over Ryanair – none,” said the independent TD. He feels that the airline’s staff in Shannon have been poorly treated, while he says that if the transatlantic services are ultimately lost to the Clare airport, something that would have seismic local economic consequences, it will be a terrible indictment of Irish policy. “I met with some members of Aer Lingus staff yesterday (Monday) and they’re being treated in an appalling way by Aer Lingus. They’re literally being left dangling, …