Tag Archives: shannon

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 …

CLARE TD Violet Anne Wynne has called for Ryanair to commit to restoring Shannon services in 2021. “In the week were the Government committed around €5m to Shannon Airport along with their pledge to sign up to the EU Traffic Light system in Tuesday’s budget it would appear this may be a case of too little too late. While I understand that this decision was made on a commercial bases it is imperative that Ryanair commit to reopening their Shannon bases after the winter lockdown,” she said. “One would have to question how their Dublin base is not at all effected. I feel again that this shows that Shannon as a standalone airport does not have the bargaining power of the DAA,” she added. However, Cork Airport is still part of the DAA group and that too has been closed, showing a certain flaw in Ms Wynne’s argument for reintegration with the other State airports.

RYANAIR’S announcement of the closure of its Shannon base is a big setback, Shannon Group’s Chief Executive Mary Considine has acknowledged today. “This is very disappointing news not only for Shannon based Ryanair employees and all our airport team, but for the whole region who rely on the services that Ryanair provide. We have done everything in our power to retain the base. “In July, Ryanair resumed services to 16 destinations from Shannon, and as a result of today’s announcement this will see their operation at Shannon reduced to 8 flights serving Stansted, Manchester and Wroclaw for the winter period. “The aviation industry is on its knees with further flight restrictions being imposed in EU countries as the virus rates increase. What we need now is a clear pathway to recovery for aviation. We had hoped that it would start with a harmonised EU traffic light system. While this was endorsed by Ireland, the measures proposed fall short of what …

THERE has been terrible news for Shannon this morning with Ryanair announcing it will close its base at the Clare airport for the winter. With transatlantic closed down already and the Shannon-Heathrow route also suspended, Shannon will now have just eight scheduled passenger flights per week. Ryanair’s Cork base will also be shut, along with other cutbacks throughout the continent. In a statement on Thursday morning, Michael O’Leary blamed Government mismanagement of the pandemic across the continent. “While we deeply regret these winter schedule cuts they have been forced upon us by Government mismanagement of EU air travel. Our focus continues to be on maintaining as large a schedule as we can sensibly operate to keep our aircraft our pilots and our cabin crew current and employed while minimising job losses. It is inevitable given the scale of these cutbacks, that we will be implementing more unpaid leave and job sharing this winter in these bases where we have agreed …

THERE have been complaints of anti-social behaviour at Shannon Town Park for months now, and recently a woman and her two-year-old son were left terrified after a firework was thrown in their direction. She also observed a resident being verbally abused by a teenager, apparently unconcerned for any consequences of his behaviour. Thirty-five year old Lucia Palacka has lived in Shannon for several years, and herself and her partner are raising their two-year-old son, Luka. On last Tuesday afternoon at 1.45pm Lucia was approaching the park with Luka in his buggy, when they came across a large group of young people. “There were a lot of kids, I don’t know how many, 15-20 maybe. They were probably at lunch and it would have been time for them to go back. I heard the first firework and when I was coming closer my words were ‘Jesus, can you stop?’ because Luka had said in our language ‘what’s this, I’m scared, Mum, …

SHANNON Airport will not be going back under the Dublin Airport Authority, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has confirmed. While Shannon Airport struggled when part of the DAA, it has also failed to reach targets set for it at the time it separated at the end of 2012. While 2020 had been set to be Shannon’s best year since separation, the onset of the pandemic has seen calls from Sinn Féin and some trade union elements for the airport to go back under the DAA. However in the Dáíl, in response to a statement from Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan, who argued that Shannon needs to go back under the DAA, the Minister said, “I believe Deputy Quinlivan said that Shannon Airport should be regrouped under the DAA. I will be honest. I met the unions based in the airport. I felt that change would take two or three years and would not solve the underlying strategic issues. We have to make …

THERE is local anger about the poor standard of the grass cutting in public areas again this summer, last week’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District heard. “People are very angry about the way that Shannon looks and they want the contractor to be local,” said Sinn Féin’s Donna McGettigan. Councillor McGettigan said that while it may not be legally possible to ensure the contract goes to a local company, there still needs to be steps taken to make sure things are done to an acceptable standard. She put forward a motion that an enforcement structure be implemented, which would include agreed standards and time frames for the contracted works. The motion also proposed that the company and the Council “streamline their communication structures. It also said that the company would preferably have a local contact who could ensure that necessary works get carried out. In a written reply Senior Executive Engineer Aidan O’Rourke stated, “Grass cutting is subject to an …

A SHANNON GP has hit out the handling of circumstances around the health minister’s Covid-19 test last Tuesday the day it unveiled the new roadmap for living with the virus. Dr Yvonne Williams said that misunderstanding over who should isolate while a contact of theirs is awaiting a test result, smacked of “chaos and confusion”. “The advice is that while someone is awaiting results of a test, their household should restrict their movements,” she explained. “If someone has a positive test, then their contacts are advised to isolate.” On Tuesday, shortly after addressing a press conference on the Living with Covid-19 plan, Minister Stephen Donnelly felt unwell and contacted his GP to arrange a coronavirus test. Following that news, the cabinet, as well as Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn, were told to restrict their movements as a precaution. The Dáil was then adjourned, at first for a period of one week, before being reconvened later on Tuesday evening. …