Tag Archives: shannon

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] …

ON Wednesday as a result of routine operations, Revenue officers seized two packages containing Kratom at Shannon Airport. The first package contained over 0.5kg of the controlled drug in loose powder form and had an estimated value of €10,400. The package originated in Austria and was destined for an address in Tipperary. The second package contained two 1kg vacuum packed blocks of Kratom and had an estimated value of €40,600. The package originated in Luxembourg and was destined for an address in Mayo. Investigations are ongoing. These seizures are part of Revenue’s ongoing work targeting the illegal importation of drugs. If businesses, or members of the public, have any information, they can contact Revenue on Confidential Phone Number 1800 295 295.

THE lockdown has brought challenges for everyone but there is no doubt that it is much more difficult for some people than for others. A wheelchair user who lives alone in Shannon, Pádraic Hayes is in a vulnerable category, with underlying conditions including cerebral palsy, arthritis and diabetes. When one hears about the difficulties that teenagers have in not going out or grandparents in not holding small children, Pádraic’s situation puts things into a greater context. “It’s ok, I’ve been confined to the house. I normally attend the Dulick centre in Ennis and I miss that. I’m also heavily involved with the Irish Wheelchair Association and I’m getting a lot of support from the two of them.” He says that he gets dinners delivered from the Dulick centre and they call him also, while the Irish Wheelchair Associations deliver packs with things like word-searches, quizzes and puzzles to keep his spirits up.These days he rarely leaves the house, with his …

WHILE the economic situation is precarious, one of Clare’s largest employers has begun work on a major expansion and is currently recruiting new people in anticipation of very high levels of business in the coming months. Shannon company Ei Electronics is locally-owned and produces fire detection and carbon monoxide products. It already employs some 750 people in Shannon, while it is currently looking to increase this number and when their expansion opens next year, they expect to recruit well over 100 new staff. Despite the Covid-19 crisis, the sod was turned on the expansion of its Shannon facility this week, and it will comprise a three-storey, 10,000m² building, adjoining its current headquarters. It is due to be open in the third quarter of 2021. CEO Mick Guinee led a successful management buy-out of the company in 1988 and has overseen major expansion in the years since then. In relation to the new building, he said, “It doubles our manufacturing capacity, …

A SOUTH Galway wheelchair user has voiced his concern about the accessibility of vehicles on Local Link routes currently, and called on Minister Shane Ross to “cop on” and return the service to Clare Bus. Séamus Ó Donnacha from Kinvara, who works for Clare Crusaders in Barefield, has been using a wheelchair for 15 years, said the nature of the accessible buses currently on the routes removed independence from passengers with disabilities, and literally left them “stuck at the back of the bus”. “To my knowledge, there are some accessible buses in the fleet which are able to cater for wheelchair users,” Mr Ó Donnacha outlined. “Clare Bus had low-floor buses which meant that someone could get straight onto the bus. Now, what we have are vehicles with tail lifts at the back. That means that wheelchair user needs to be helped on board, and they’re left there away from everyone else and can’t interact with others. That’s an upsetting …

BROADCASTER and author Rachael English is still on the radio regularly but hasn’t been into RTÉ for over two months. “I think the last time I was in the building was on March 18. Ever since then, I have a little box that uses the wifi and it came from Radio Sport. They ordinarily are the users, it even has a link to Croke Park on it, they’re unlikely to be able to use that for a while,” the Shannon woman says. Presenting Morning Ireland to hundreds of thousands of listeners isn’t the kind of thing one normally does from home but Rachael has got into the habit of it. “It takes a little bit of getting used to, but a lot less than I thought it would. It was a great relief there for a few weeks that it was possible to do it like that. There was one day that the wifi went down, not during the programme …

CLARE has been ranked fifth highest of Irish counties most exposed to “significant economic disruption” caused by the Covid-19 outbreak with more than half of the commercial units in the county likely to be affected. Cooraclare economist John Daly has conducted a study for the three Regional Assemblies of Ireland which found 50.5% of Clare’s commercial units were operating in sectors likely to be worst affected by Covid-19. This represents just over 2,500 businesses in Clare. The analysis found that 51% of units in Newmarket-on-Fergus were at risk, 47.7% in Ennis, 43.8% Kilrush, 42.6% Sixmilebridge and 32.6% in Shannon. Coastal and rural counties are more likely to be exposed due to their reliance on commercial units that generally require human interaction and cannot be operated remotely, the study outlines. The GeoDirectory commercial database has been used in identifying each area’s reliance on sectors likely to be affected by measures designed to curtail the spread of Covid-19. Sectors determined as likely …