Tag Archives: shannon

THE crew of Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 115, were on standby during the early hours of Monday morning to assist the SpaceX Crew Dragon mission launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. After the launch, Brendan Meehan, Chief Crewman Standards with Rescue 115, told The Clare Champion, that the Shannon crew were prepared to rescue the four astronauts on board in the event the mission was forced to abort before making it into orbit, and touchdown in the Atlantic Ocean anywhere between 50 and 200km off the Clare coast. “It’s quite an unusual event, and I suppose the chances of us being called to action were probably slim. Nonetheless, we were ready to fly out to rescue the astronauts on board. We had been briefed on the make-up of the capsule, how the hatches open and how it would be sitting in the water. “Our job would be to fly out to the capsule, collect the astronauts and bring …

SHANNON based councillor Donna McGettigan is recovering from Covid-19, and she feels that the stigma around the virus is a barrier to effectively dealing with it. Speaking on Monday, Councillor McGettigan said that herself and her husband have been confined to home for the last two weeks, and she was diagnosed on the weekend before last. By this week, she was well on the way to becoming healthy once more. “I’m back now, I feel a good bit better, but I get very tired very quickly, the energy levels aren’t where they were. I still get a mad headache every day, a mad blast of a headache, but I know it’s coming. Honestly, I didn’t get it as bad as some people had, I just had three bad days. I was very, very lucky.” Her husband is in a high risk category, but has also managed to recover from the virus. Councillor McGettigan had a few days when she was …

FEARS over air pollution dominate objections lodged by local residents against the proposed development of a bioenergy plant in Stonehall. Carbon Sole Group Limited is seeking planning permission for the development. In their objection, Anthony and Catherine Malone claimed, “Biomass plants are a significant source of air pollutants harming vulnerable communities where they are located.  “They emit toxic air pollutants including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, lead, mercury and other harmful air pollutants including hydrochloric acid, dioxins, benzene, formaldehyde, arsenic, chromium, cadmium, lead and mercury.” Biomass power plant pollution can, they claim, exceed that of coal-fired power plants even when the best available technology is used. They further allege that fine particulate matter can get deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream causing heart disease, stroke and aggravated asthma.  “The air pollution from biomass can be continuous, heavily impacting the local community by degrading the air continuously around the clock.” The couple point out that immediately …

SHANNON Airport could have seen Heathrow services resume before the end of the year had the State been more proactive about easing travel restrictions, according to Aer Lingus’ top executive. Donal Moriarty, CEO of the carrier, told last week’s meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications Networks that Aer Lingus had intended to resume the service next month. “With Shannon Airport, we had ambition to recommence our Shannon-Heathrow service in December. We cannot now do that. It was on the basis of what movement had taken place some time ago with the easing of travel restrictions. “Our plan is to recommence operations in April on the Shannon-Heathrow, Shannon-Boston and Shannon-JFK routes. That is our plan but, as I said in my remarks, it is dependent on the significant easing of restrictions contemplated by the traffic light system, which have to be appropriately implemented. We are very keen to restore those services and we plan to do so,” …

A US company has chosen Shannon as the location of its European Centre of Excellence, creating 25 roles over the next five years. Exida, a world leader in functional safety, industrial cybersecurity, and alarm management, provides certification, services, assessments, and tools to a number of industries. Company CEO Chris O’Brien said, “We are very excited to launch Exida IRL to provide local support for our European customers and expand Exida’s technical capabilities.” There were several factors that led to choosing Ireland for this expansion, said Mr O’Brien, including proximity to European customers, strong local talent pool to recruit from, support from IDA Ireland, and the country’s proven track record for foreign direct investment. Exida director Iwan van Beurden said, “Initial hiring is already completed for the Shannon office and our plans are to bring the total staff count up to 25 in the next three to five years. This staff will allow us to expand our software development capability and …

WITH its traditional open evening unable to go ahead, St Patrick’s Comprehensive School has had to improvise to show potential new students and their parents what it has to offer. The school has teamed up with a past pupil to shoot a video capturing the Comp’s unique atmosphere and the sense of closeness and camaraderie that defines it. “Normally what we would have had on Thursday night would have been our actual open night,” principal Mary Costello told the Champion. “The school would have been open, all the classrooms would have been open and we’d have had tours going around led by students and staff, where prospective students could come in and walk around and get a sense of it. “Obviously with Covid we can’t do that. We looked at all the different options that were out there, there are Google earth ones, but what we wanted very much was to give a sense of the school, the atmosphere and …

SHANNON Commercial Properties had been due to receive a decision on a proposal for an advanced technology manufacturing unit in the Free Zone, but Clare County Council have now sought further information. The proposed development would be a single storey high-bay industrial floor, with an ancillary office area. It would replace existing structures at the site, with planning permission for their demolition already granted. In a submission accompanying the application it set out what is proposed. “The site is located at Bay 77 and 79 within the Shannon Free Zone, adjacent to Rineanna House. Currently it consists of two free standing 1960s factory facilities with associated car parking and back of house amenities, which are earmarked to be demolished to make space for the new 40,000 square foot advanced technology manufacturing facility. “As part of Shannon Commercial Properties 5+ years development strategy, Shannon Commercial Properties with Hassett, Leyden and Association are exploring the redevelopment of this under utilised gateway site …

A SHANNON food bank is set to close for most of the last two months of the year, because the demand for what it offers is too great. Feed Clare has been operating at the Kincora building in the Town Centre for some time, but last Friday was the first time it opened in three weeks, as it had run out of food to distribute. Local woman Karen Cassidy is involved in running Feed Clare and she explained why it hadn’t been open. “We ran out of supplies, we just have a bigger number of people coming in, so obviously we’ve been going through our supplies more quickly, so we had to close until our next delivery was due. We’re with Food Cloud and we’re allotted a certain amount every year, now we’ve applied for more credit from them, but we have to wait and see.” While a fresh delivery last week allowed it to reopen on Friday, she says …