Tag Archives: shannon

TEN-year-old Shannon boy Alex O’Shaughnessy is currently in Essen, Germany, receiving Proton Beam Therapy. It’s a cutting edge treatment for rare disease Embroyonal Rhabdomyosarcoma, which Alex was diagnosed with earlier this year. The family arrived in Germany on August 13 and on Wednesday, Alex’s mother, Agnes, said he had received 20 sessions of the Proton Beam Therapy, with 11 more left. He has also had a cycle of chemotherapy while in Germany and will have another before he returns to Ireland. “It’s only about half an hour a day for the treatment. There is one day-a-week where he sees the doctors and there are a couple of dressing changes. It’s just one day-a-week when we’re there for most of the day,” said Agnes. Alex has coped quite well with the treatment. “He’s good. There have been some minor side-effects. He’s having it near his throat, so there are some little issues but they are well on top of things here …

IT now appears that US Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to the Banner County will be happening earlier than planned and he will stay for two nights in Doonbeg. While Mr Pence had not been expected until next Friday, his European trip has now been brought forward, with him firstly travelling to Poland, in place of President Donald Trump. He is now expected to arrive in Ireland on Monday, and be taken to Doonbeg after arriving in Shannon. From Doonbeg he is expected to Dublin on Tuesday for meetings, but to be back in Doonbeg again on Tuesday night, before leaving the country on Wednesday. At this stage little information available, and even official sources have few details, however it is thought that the Vice President will not now travel to the Cliffs of Moher during his time in Clare

HE has taught at St Caimin’s for more than 30 years and now Alan Cunningham has taken on the big job, succeeding Claire Knight as principal. “I’m following in a long line of leaders in St Caimin’s and my hope is to do as good a job as they did,” he says of his promotion. Alan was dealing with a family bereavement earlier this week but still generously made himself available to talk about his new responsibilities. Virtually his whole career has been at St Caimin’s, as he went there straight from college. “It was back in the ’80s. There wasn’t much around but this school was built the year before I qualified. I came in part-time, bits of hours here, bits of hours there. I was two years doing bits and pieces.” A native of the town, he went to national school at St Conaire’s and second level at St Patrick’s Comprehensive. The elevation to principal comes after four …

MORE than €6.1 million was spent on residential properties in Shannon within the first six months of the year. Figures from the Irish Property Price Register show that there were 38 sales between January and June within the town, with a total of €6,132,803.29 being spent. This means that the average price paid in Clare’s second-largest town was €161,389.56. The most expensive property was 29 Tullyglass Crescent, for which a sum of €295,000 was paid. This deal was finalised on January 22. Thirteen of the transactions were for more than €200,000 but there was also plenty of more affordable accommodation in the town. Just €59,100 was paid for number 29 Rossbracken but it is understood that in this instance, full market value was not paid. There was a sum of €60,000 paid for number 81 Bru na Sionna, while in all there were six transactions where the property value was less than €100,000. At the moment, there are 44 units …

ON a lovely autumn day almost 21 years ago, the biggest shock in the lives of Alice and Denis Myers arrived, when their beloved son Jack died in an accident as he made his way home from St Aidan’s National School. Little Jack is now going to be commemorated on a sign that is being erected near the school. Alice and Denis are very warm people, who generously welcomed this writer into their home last Friday, spoke freely about their son, their terrible loss, their grief and are very pleased that this new memorial to their little boy will now be a feature of the town. Jack was one of four sons in a family that lived in Finian Park in the heart of Shannon. He loved The Lion King movie and trips to Coole Park. He was in senior infants at St Aidan’s in September 1998, when terrible news arrived at the Myers’ door. School principal Ger Loughnane and …

TALKS on the future of Shannon pharmaceutical company Avara have now been referred to the Workplace Relations Commission. Speaking to The Clare Champion this week, Clare TD Joe Carey said, “The talks are still ongoing, as far as I understand. The union weren’t happy with the consultation period, so it has been referred to the WRC and there will be engagement there between the two parties. “As far as I understand, there was a 30-day period for consultation but there was only maybe 10 days of consultation. They looked for a date with the WRC and they’ve got it. The bigger picture here is that there is a business plan that the workforce have put together. “It’s a viable business plan and it’s based upon actual orders that the company have received to produce product for companies that need it. They’ve based it over a 12-month period to maximise the level of employment.” He said he believes that the plan …

SHANNON Airport was closed to aircraft for four and a half hours this morning, but it could have been much worse but for the fact a fire on board a plane was quickly spotted and extinguished. Director of Operations at Shannon Airport Niall Maloney said that the response began at 6.15am. “We were alerted by air traffic control to an issue with an aircraft that we responded to. We were responding to smoke in the undercarriage but it developed into a fire.” The aircraft in question was an Omni Boeing 767-300 which had travelled from America to Shannon and was due to go onwards to the Middle East. While Omni typically use Shannon to transport troops, there has not been confirmation as to whether or not troops were on board the plane on this occasion. There were 145 passengers and 14 crew on board the aircraft at the time and Mr Maloney said they were all uninjured. “One passenger may …

SHANNON Airport has now reopened following a fire on an Omni Boeing 767-300 aircraft this morning, which resulted in its runway being blocked for a number of hours. In a statement this afternoon, Shannon Group said, “Shannon Group has confirmed that thanks to the swift response of the Shannon Airport emergency services team, the airport reopened at 11.15am after the successful removal of a plane from the runway following an incident earlier this morning. As there has been flight disruption, intending passengers have been asked to contact their airlines. Updates are available on the airport social media channels. We would like to extend our thanks to the IAA (Shannon Tower Business Unit) and our airline partners for their support in the management of the incident.”