Tag Archives: shannon

THOUSANDS of people have come from different parts of the country to Shannon Airport today to see the Antonov 225, the world’s largest aircraft. The plane arrived shortly before 3am from Bangor International Airport and will leave again at around 10pm. It’s wing span is greater than the width of the pitch at Croke Park and from nose to tail it is one and a half times the length of an Olympic Swimming Pool. It stands alone as the largest and most powerful jet the world has ever seen. Shannon has one of the longest runways in Europe and it is the only Irish airport the Antonov 225 has ever landed at. Niall Moloney, Shannon Airport Operations Director said the aircraft never fails to amaze. “When you see it on the taxiway here and can put its size into perspective, it’s almost unbelievable that it can get up into the skies, let alone be as graceful when it’s up there,” …

AN 87 year old woman who was arrested following the diversion of a flight from Frankfurt to Toronto has been released from Garda care. It is understood that she spent a portion of last night at a local hotel and she is set to leave Ireland at some point today. Gardai don’t expect there will be any further action taken in relation to the matter. After having received reports of a disruptive passenger Gardai were on hand when the Air Canada flight on which she was travelling touched down at Shannon at around 8.20pm on Friday evening.  

AN international investigation has begun following a massive cocaine seizure at Shannon Airport on Easter Sunday on an aircraft that had come from the US. As a result of routine profiling, officers from Revenue’s Customs Service seized 3.4kgs of cocaine, valued at around €240,000 at the airport. Their detection dog, Ollie, who has had a huge amount of success in tracking drugs over the last few years, was again involved. The drugs had been concealed behind a panel in the aircraft cabin.

TWO men in their forties are in hospital in Cork following an explosion at Thormac Engineering in the Shannon Industrial estate yesterday. The men were aged 44 and 49, one was from Shannon and the other from Limerick.It is understood that they suffered head,hand and leg injuries and were in intense pain at the scene. Observers believed one of them had sustained worse injuries than the other. The incident occurred at around 3.15pm yesterday, while the pair were working with a machine used to inject plastic into moulds. A colleague of theirs made the initial moves to bring the situation under control. The men were treated at the scene, before being brought by ambulance to the Shannon based coast guard helicopter  and flown from there to the burns unit in Cork.   Owen Ryan

TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly both addressed Ennis District Court on Tuesday, claiming Ireland is complicit in atrocities through its decision to allow the US military to use Shannon Airport. They criticised the lack of inspections on aircraft being used by the US military, claiming that relying on diplomatic assurances from America is hopelessly inadequate. The two are accused of climbing a perimeter fence at Shannon and entering a part of the airport to which they were not permitted on July 22 of last year. During evidence on Tuesday, both freely acknowledged that they had entered the area in question but claimed they were left with no other option due to the lack of inspections being carried out by the authorities. They said they had been told to provide some concrete evidence to justify inspections and that their attempt to get to a US aircraft on the Shannon tarmac was a response. Mr Wallace also spoke about his experiences …

TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly addressed Ennis District Court at some length today, claiming that official failures had left them with no option but to enter restricted areas of Shannon airport without permission. [doptg id=”49″] They said they had done so as the powers that be refused to address their complaints about the US military aircraft use of Shannon and put the onus on those seeking checks on military aircraft to provide evidence. Today was the second day of the hearing and the matter has now been adjourned until April 15. The first witness today was John Lannon of peace group Shannonwatch. Mr Lannon is a lecturer in UL, and holds expertise in human rights. He said that while he didn’t know precisely how many times specific concerns about the US use of Shannon have been expressed to gardaí, it is “well over 100”. Mr Lannon added that the Garda response had been “to essentially do nothing”. It was …

A woman was pronounced dead following a fire at a house in Firgrove at Hurler’s Cross in the early hours of this morning. The alarm was raised at around 1.30am and the emergency services were summoned. The woman was 70 years of age and she was pronounced dead shortly after 5am at the scene. Her name has not been released at the time of writing.

IT was a fairly cold winter in Clare, Met Éireann figures have indicated. Met Éireann defines winter as December, January and February and it found that mean temperatures for the period were 0.2 degrees below what would be expected. Meanwhile rainfall for the season was 17% above average, while the amount of sunshine was 12% above average. Met Éireann also released statistics for the month of February, which also reflected a cold and wet month. The mean temperature was nearly a full degree below average for the time of year, while the amount of rainfall was 20% above normal. There was five per cent less sunshine than average.