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Tag Archives: Shannon Estuary

Memorial service to mark Shannon’s worst air crash

THIS Saturday is the 55th anniversary of the worst air crash in Shannon’s history and one family are travelling from Austria to commemorate the tragedy. Eighty-four people were killed when a President Airlines Douglas DC-6 crashed into the Estuary on September 10, 1961. Thirty-three-year-old Ferdinand Berger was one of those on board and his death left his wife and three children bereaved. This weekend, his two daughters, Eva and Christa, are visiting with their families. They have been in contact with Fr Tom Ryan over recent months and, speaking about their arrival, he said. “I was contacted during the summer by the Berger family, to help organise a memorial service this Saturday for their father, who died 55 years ago in this crash. “Their contact led me to do a bit of investigation into all that happened in that era in Shannon, which is fairly well documented. Unfortunately, at that time, so many people lost their lives. Everyone who lost …

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Lobbying TDs on Aughinish licence

A NEWLY-formed group has contacted two ministers and 31 Shannon Estuary TDs to register concerns about a dredging operation that began at Aughinish in County Limerick last Friday, which could impact the Clare side of the estuary. Aughinish Alumina Ltd was granted a foreshore licence to undertake 128,000 tonnes of maintenance dredging of industrial waste on the Shannon Estuary. The plan involves dredging 16,000 tonnes of material annually for a period of eight years. The company submitted a detailed Natura Impact Statement to the Department of the Environment, who made the decision to issue a foreshore licence. Rescue the River Shannon Group has written to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Denis Naughten and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed on the proposal. “We, as a group, are representing the farmers, fishermen and concerned residents of the Shannon Estuary area and we believe the department’s possible decision could have serious adverse effects on the …

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Planning future development of the Shannon Estuary

IDA Ireland has welcomed the completion of the Stratetic Integrated Framework Plan (SIFP) for the Shannon Estuary, aimed at promoting investment and development opportunities. IDA’s Regional Manager for the Mid West, Niall O’Callaghan welcomed the culmination of the project which he was involved with on behalf of the agency and said: “Bringing all stakeholders along the Estuary together to work on a coordinated approach to market six strategic sites is a significant step in the Estuary’s future development.” The Shannon Estuary is Ireland’s premier deep-water port, routinely catering for bulk ships with key ports at Limerick and Foynes and direct connectivity to all major international shipping lanes. It is home to a number of large employers, including IDA-backed Aughinish Alumina. The project was launched in late 2013 and was developed with input from a cross sectoral working group, namely Clare, Kerry and Limerick City & County Councils, IDA Ireland, Shannon Commercial Properties and the Shannon Foynes Port Company. The project …

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Clare’s coastline from the sky

A NEW photo book, Clare’s Wild Atlantic Way – An Aerial Perspective of County Clare’s Extraordinary Coastline, has just been published and contains photographs from the full length of Clare’s coast, from New Quay in the north of the county down to Loop Head, and all along the Shannon Estuary, as far inland as the airport. The book is by Patrick G Ryan, who was living in Miltown Malbay until his death, just a few weeks ago. His friend Ann O’Connell explained, “This was a project that he started about four or five years ago. His father was a pilot here in Miltown Malbay and Patrick would have done a lot of flying with him. His father passed away from bowel cancer and Patrick decided to put this book together in memory of his father and to donate the proceeds to Cahercalla Hospice. That was the journey he went on and, unfortunately, he succumbed to the same fate as his …

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Plane sailing up the coast

It was reminiscent of  the flying boats era on the Shannon Estuary early on Thursday morning when a giant plane was loaded on a barge for transport by sea to Enniscrone in County Sligo. The TransAero Boeing 767-200 was bought by business man David McGowan to be installed in his glamping site near the popular resort. It was a major logistical exercise, involving up to 60 people, to get the plane from Shannon Airport compound to the waters’ edge on Wednesday and onto the barge, as tides were a factor.

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Fears for estuary dolphins’ health

ALTHOUGH a report published by the Zoological Society in London has found that the effect of pollution on bottlenose dolphins in the Shannon Estuary is the lowest in Europe, Dr Simon Berrow of the Kilrush-based Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) has expressed alarm at the level of pollution in the estuary. Levels are above the toxic threshold thought to impact on bottlenose dolphins’ health and reproduction. Information collected by the IWDG in Irish waters fed into the research led by Dr Paul Jepson of the Zoological Society. Dr Berrow, project manager with the IWDG and lecturer in applied freshwater and marine biology at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, was one of the co-authors in the study. “We provided samples from bottlenose dolphins in the Shannon Estuary for the study and, although concentrations in the Shannon dolphins were the lowest in Europe, the levels were still well above the toxicity threshold, which leads to serious impacts,” Dr Berrow said, adding that …

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OPW minister views estuary embankment breaches

THE Minister of State with Special Responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW) has told The Clare Champion that separate minor work applications for farmers affected by flooding on the Fergus embankments and in Doonbeg will be dealt with, as quickly as possible, by his office. The maximum figure possible under each scheme is €500,000. Deputy Simon Harris was speaking during a visit to Clare on Tuesday, when he met with a farming delegation in Kildysart and visited some of the land affected by serious flooding in 2014. “I think they appreciate the frankness and the straight-forwardness of the procedure I have outlined to them. When I came to office and was made aware of these problems, the first thing I did was to bring all the people around the table together. Deputy Pat Breen has been on my case about this for quite a period of time,” he explained. “On March 10, I brought the IFA Clare chairman, …

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Not enough of a splash about Shannon Dolphins

THE founder of the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation (SDWF) has claimed West Clare tourism interests have failed to capitalise on the “unique resource” of the family of 140 dolphins that populate the Shannon Estuary. Dr Simon Berrow says this is despite a “20-year head-start”, while he is also fearful about the future of the dolphin monitoring centre in Kilrush, which has been operating for 22 years. The centre receives no funding, although it did in the past. “As a region, I think we’ve failed to make the most of what, to me, is a completely unique resource. Loop Head Tourism has done a fantastic job promoting Loop Head but the area doesn’t look any different to me from 20 years ago. The lighthouse is the lighthouse. It’s not unique. They are packaging it together in a lovely package but I still think the dolphins are our unique product. Nowhere else in Ireland has dolphins that are so accessible. Very …

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