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THE AXING of the Shannon/Hea- throw route by Aer Lingus has cost Shannon Airport 57,000 London passengers, but airport bosses are staying positive, saying that to lose some of the loaf is better than losing all of the bread.

In the last 12 months of the opera- tion, Aer Lingus carried 331,000 pas- sengers between Shannon and Hea- throw.

The numbers now travelling be- tween Shannon and all of the London airports which it services are down 57,000 for the first six months of this year, a drop of 16 per cent. There has also been a 20 per cent drop on trans- atlantic passenger figures.

“It could have been worse – we could have been down 330,000, but with Ryanair putting on extra flights, in a sense, we have hung on to a lot of the business,” an airport spokes- person said.

Ryanair are now the sole carriers for London traffic, providing four flights daily to Stanstead, two to Gat- wick and one to Luton.

The airport authority has not given up on the hope that CityJet may yet provide a service to London City.

“We are still talking to them about that. CityJet were before the Oireach- tas Committee on transport last week and they expressed their satisfaction with the Shannon-Charles de Gaulle route. They told the committee they are crunching the numbers on the Shannon-London City route,’ the

spokesman said.

While CityJet’s venture in Paris ap- pears to be a hit with the travelling business sector, they cannot replace the volume of connectivity which was offered on the Heathrow slots. Until

January 14 last, Aer Lingus were of- fering 700 seats daily. The smaller CityJet planes flying into Paris are offering 200 seats a day. The Airport Authority concedes that business has been lost to Cork Airport.

“We know for a fact that the Cork- Heathrow numbers have increased greatly, so obviously some of that is former Shannon-Heathrow traffic,” the spokesman said.

Commenting on the traffic figures

generally, Airport Director Mar- tin Moroney said that a downturn in traffic had been expected due to a number of factors, but there are a number of positive developments which give rise to optimism for the remainder of 2008.

“A downturn in transatlantic traf- fic had been expected this year due to the effects of ‘Open Skies’ which are, in fact, in place since the begin- ning of the winter 2007/8 schedule. The confirmation by Aer Lingus of year-round commitment to their Shannon transatlantic routes was a welcome development as was the an- nouncement earlier this year of ad- ditional promotional funding aimed at supporting traffic development on all transatlantic routes to Shannon,’ said Mr Moroney.

He added that short-haul traffic numbers had suffered owing to the loss of the three daily London-Hea- throw services and Centralwings’ withdrawal. However, Ryanair’s re- cent announcement of new services to and from Poland will compensate for this, he said. “The new CityJet-Air France service is performing well with high load factors, albeit with less capacity and frequency than the Heathrow service had offered. How- ever, market demand is expected to result in a larger aircraft operating this service in the autumn”.

AN increase in tourists looking for a more intimate experience of their time in Clare has led one north Clare businessman to launch a new, regular tourist walking service in the south Burren.

Having operated by appointment only for the last five year, the Kil- fenora based Heart of Burren Walks has this month launched two regu- lar weekly walks. The walks have proved so successful that guide, Tony Kirby, plans to run them on a daily basis in 2009.

‘There seems to a growing demand

for authentic guided walking tours in the area. I’ve been operating as a walking tour guide in the Burren for five years now or so but up until now it’s been by appointment only. But I have decided to open a new angle on it and open regular scheduled walks during the high season,” he said.

“So each Wednesday and Saturday afternoon throughout July and Au- gust we have a scheduled walk and the response has been so good that I will probably expand it a good bit next year.”

The walking tours leave from out- side the Burren Centre in Kilfenora each Wednesday and Saturday at

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The walks explore a variety of routes in the south of the Burren and take about two hours to complete.

“I have a few different routes and place but they are all roughly two hours in duration, the walking is always quite leisurely and there is always regular stops for some com- mentary on the highlights of the Burren which would be the nice wild flowers and things like that. The in- tention is to keep the group between 15 and at the very most 20 people. Children under the age of 16 come free of charge so that is a real incen- tive for families to come along,’ con-

tinued Mr Kirby.

“I do think that people are looking for holidays that are activity based and have contact with local people. The meeting point for all the walks is at the Burren centre in Kilfenora and I would like to think that there is a benefit for the local community and the Burren Centre.”

The Heart of Burren Walks leaves from outside the Burren Cen- tre in Kilfenora each Wednesday and Saturday at 2.30pm. For more info contact 065 6827707, email info@heartofburrenwalks.com — or check out www.heartofburrenwalks. one

A RESIDENT in Shannon is oppos- ing plans to demolish a local com- munity hall. People living in the Drumgeely area of the town want to see their local hall, Park Hall, demolished and another one built to replace it.

They say that the hall has become derelict and has become a haven for anti-social behaviour in its existing State.

The hall has not been used for a considerable length of time and they say that it is of no benefit to any- body.

However, resident Terry Kelly, who has lived in Corrib Drive for more

than 20 years, is opposed to this and wants the existing hall redeveloped.

“It doesn’t make sense to me to have it demolished and to have noth- ing put in its place. My intention is to fight for something in this area,” he said.

“Corrib Drive would be one of the early areas in Shannon. To me there is a greater need now for community development as people are getting old and can’t travel too far from their homes,” he added.

Fine Gael Town Councillor Sean McLoughlin raised a query on the matter at a meeting of the Shannon electoral area committee last month.

“It is an anti-social attraction. If it is derelict, it should be knocked and

identify a more suitable site for a community hall for meeting rooms. It is needed. There is no point in hav- ing it there if it is beyond repair,” he said, at the time.

He was told, in a written response from Senior Executive Officer Michael McNamara, that several years ago, Shannon Development had agreed arrangements for the lease of the hall to Shannon Youth Service Sonia

‘The council has had no input into the operation of the facility since the transfer of the town and does not re- ceive a rent in relation to the prop- erty,’ he said.

He pointed out the council will meet with representatives of the

committee responsible for the hall, “to ascertain current status and seek to address any relevant issues.”

Cllr McLoughlin told

IN THE immediate moments after the final whistle, a couple of things spring to the mind of Gerald Mc- Carthy. The battling quality of Clare and what he described as the “lucky” substitutions Cork executed.

But if Clare battled, then Cork went to war for the second week in a row and came out unscathed or unscratched and as for those substi- tutions, there was nothing fortunate about them. Two goals from the bench merely highlights the strength

of the Cork panel.

“I think we were lucky in that some of the substitutions we made worked out for us, they gave us a lift, so we’re happy to win. But in fairness, it was a real fight to the end.

‘Sometimes they [the substitutions] come off. We had a few tired bod- ies out there and two or three other lads could have come off as well. Fellas were just tired and it’s a hard ask to play two championship games in a week. Some lads played Under 21 during the week on top of that, so that’s three games in a week.

“It was said last week that it was too much for fellas and it is. The GAA is asking too much of these lads. They might think that because they are young, these lads can keep going but these big games take a lot out of you. It shouldn’t be allowed, playing three championship games in a week. The GAA needs to take a look at that.”

He looks back at Clare’s start and says they were hungry for posses- sion, that they were frenzied in their desire to clean up whatever ball was breaking and says that Clare’s open- ing goal was like a kick in the gut.

“Tt [Barry Nugent’s] was of the soft variety and it set us back. We were eight points down at half time and we equated it to last Saturday night when our backs were to the wall and we told them we hadn’t played.

“We weren’t winning the breaks. Clare absolutely cleaned us out on the breaks in the first half. It looked like our legs were heavy and we just weren’t reacting to the breaking ball. We tried to lift them an they came out very strong at the start of the sec- ond half and we got a very important goal. The players just can’t do it the

easy route. We didn’t play in the first half, quite obviously. We were a lit- tle worried about how the lads would react to the hard game we had last Saturday because they had such lit- tle time to recover. Then we didn’t hit the ground running.

“But in fairness to Clare, it was a very gutsy performance from them to take the lead and then when we came back so strong they took an- other five-point lead. We had to think very deep to win it.”

True, but that’s of little consolation to Clare.

HAVING moved the Shannon-Hea- throw slots to Belfast in January, Aer Lingus have not been drawn by claims that the decision has been a disaster with vastly reduced uptake on the flights in comparison to the numbers carried in and out of Shan- Kone

But figures obtained by Oireactas Transport Committee member, Dep- uty Pat Breen, show that the take-up on the Belfast to Heathrow route is

“poor”.

Deputy Breen checked availability figures on Friday, July 25. He found that just 122 seats were booked of a possible 696 for travel on August 1 to August 3, one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. The bookings represent an 18 per cent take-up on the Heathrow route for that week- end.

Deputy Breen said he is calling on Aer Lingus to reinstate their Shan- non-Heathrow link adding that the airline has a ready made market of in

excess of 300,000 passengers in the region.

“At the recent Transport Committee Meeting I asked the Aer Lingus CEO Dermot Mannion if a year on from his decision to exit Shannon and es- tablish a base in Belfast if the move had resulted in significant growth in profits in comparison with business done in Shannon. In response Dermot Mannion said that Belfast is “holding its own,’ said Deputy Breen.

“However, Aer Lingus own seat al- location system tells a different story.

I decided to check their services on August 1, 2008, and returning on Sunday, August 3, 2008. Only 18 per cent of seats were allocated on Fri- day, the day I checked the figures on all Belfast routes to London Heath- row Outbound.”

Figures for other routes checked on the same day for travel on the Bank Holiday weekend showed that on the Paris route 19 per cent of seats were allocated, 10 per cent to Amsterdam, 16 per cent to Barcelona, 14 per cent to Rome while flights to Faro and

Malaga do better at 29 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

“IT am now appealing to Aer Lingus to reinstate their Shannon-Heathrow route, the market is here and when Dermot Mannion admitted during the Transport Committee Meeting that he regretted the damage that was caused to ‘our reputation in the Shan- non area during three or four months of last year’, 12 months on they have an opportunity to rebuild their repu- tation by committing to a Shannon- Heathrow link,’ he said.

THE stars of Hollywood will de- scend on Ennistymon this Wednes- day in the shape of new film by Clare based author and filmmaker Alan Cooke.

Home, which features appearances from Liam Neeson, Mike Myers, Su- san Sarandon, Rosie Perez, Alfred Molina, Frank McCourt and Malachy McCourt will receive it’s local debut at the Courthouse Gallery in En- nistymon tomorrow evening at 8pm.

Home in an autobiographic tale of Cooke’s own journey in New York and the general experience of mak- ing the Big Apple your home.

“I spent six years in New York be- fore moving back to Dublin. I spent a few months there and decided that I just didn’t want to be around there anymore. I’m writing a book about my time in New York so I wanted to find somewhere quiet to put my thoughts together while and that’s what brought me to Inagh,” said writer and author Alan Cooke.

“It was just after 9/11 so it was a fairly strange time to be moving to New York. I started writing a lot of pieces about the city which eventu- ally led on to the film. So now I have started going back to these original writings, expanding on them and putting the book together.

“It’s a documentary but its a mix- ture of different styles. A documen- tary is usually just a lot of talking heads but this is more like a poem or love letter to the city.

‘There are a lot of interesting visu- als about what I felt about New York and what the meaning of home is in New York.

‘Because so much happens in every moment in New York we were try- ing to capture that feeling visually, through the words and in the inter- views with regular New Yorkers and the starts who ended up being in the nubeee

Home received it’s Irish premier at the Eye Cinema in Galway last week

and this will be it’s first Clare show- ing. Following the show Alan will host a questions and answers session with interested audience members.

“It’s a study of how New York is in the 21 century but it’s also about how a person changes when they leave somewhere like Ireland and go to a big city like New York,’ he contin- ued.

To book tickets phone 065 7071630, email ennistymon@mail.com. Tick- ets cost ©7 and a trailer is viewable on www.homethemovie.com.

A NATIONAL funding project, which is expected to be scrapped, could spell bad news for the pro- posed arts centre in Shannon.

The provision of an arts centre in the town has been on the cards for several years. However, it will be de- pendent on funding.

According to the mayor of Shan- non, Councillor Gerry Flynn (Ind), the “Gateway Innovation Fund’ is to

come to an end.

The fund was put in place to facili- tate regional community initiatives and was to pump €3 million into projects across the country between now and 2010.

It was hoped that money would be funded for the Shannon arts centre under this initiative.

Cllr Flynn said he was in receipt of a report that suggested the scheme was going to be scrapped.

“T think it spells alarm bells for us.

We were hoping for funding under that,” said Cllr Flynn.

He said the centre ties in with the master plan for Shannon and given the economic downturn, he had fears for the overall project.

“It was an area of funding that put forward the idea of regional and bal- anced initiatives. For TC2 and TC3 (the master plan for Shannon), there is every chance the developers we have on standby might decide not to develop. It cuts down our options,”

he said.

However, Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) pointed out that while it was 1m- portant for the arts centre to be built, there were other potential sources of funding. “It is going to challenge us. It was a potential source of revenue, but not the only source of revenue,” she said.

Sixmilebridge-based Cllr John Crowe said the revelation was a “bombshell”, given that so much work had been put into the centre.

A CONVICTED killer who was caught with two bars of cannabis resin has been jailed for two years, one suspended.

Michael Nihill (33), formerly of Church Drive, Clarecastle, was con- victed in 2001 of the manslaughter of Mikie Shannon, who died in a row at Lysaght’s laneway, Ennis, on April 2, 2000. Nihill has served his sentence for that offence.

At Ennis Circuit Court yesterday, Nihill admitted possession of can- nabis resin for the purpose of sale or supply, at Limerick Road, Ennis, on July 1, 2006.

Garda Eric Stafford told the court that a garda surveillance operation was in place on the date in question. As part of this, gardai searched the driver and passenger of a car, but

found nothing.

They then searched the car and found two bars of a brown substance hidden in the boot. Analysis of the substance showed that it was canna- bis resin.

Gardai then carried out a search of a house, where they found eight packets of self-sealing plastic bags, a digital weighing scales and €1,060 cash in a holdall bag in a bedroom wardrobe.

‘The accused was interviewed. He indicated he had these two bars of cannabis resin for his own use. He said it was easier to buy it in large amounts,” said the garda.

The court was told the value of the drugs seized was €3,500.

Garda Stafford said Nihill had sev- eral previous convictions, including two for possession of drugs. He was also convicted of manslaughter and

jailed for eight years in 2001.

Defence barrister Michael Collins said his client had endeavoured to plead guilty to the charge in the dis- trict court, but jurisdiction had been declined.

Referring to the manslaughter con- viction, he explained that his client and another man had been charged with murder, after they attacked someone who had bullied them at school.

“The case went to trial. He was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years,’ said Mr Collins.

He said that his client was in a re- lationship and his partner gave birth to a baby girl just eight weeks ago. Nihill’s girlfriend told the court she lives with him in Corofin and she would probably have to give up her job if he went to jail.

Mr Collins said the offence before the court happened two years ago and his client hadn’t got into trouble since, adding, “given his previous offences he is a man who could find trouble if he looked for it”.

He said that Nihill worked as a plasterer until recently and has at- tended Narcotics Anonymous.

He asked for the commencement of any prison sentence to be postponed, because of his client’s personal cir- cumstances.

Judge Carroll Moran said that pos- session of drugs for the purpose of sale or supply was very serious.

“We are told incessantly it is an of- fence to be dealt with severely. I have to impose an immediate prison sen- tence. I may defer it,” he said.

He imposed a two year jail term, one suspended, and deferred its com- mencement until October 1.

AS much as €1 million will be spent on surf-lessons in Clare this year with millions more being generated in related industries, accommodation and food. An estimated 20,000 surf lessons will be given in the county in 2008, with the industry now direct- ly employing 15 full-time staff and more than 60 extra people at peak Wb eslene

With two new surf-based_busi- nesses having set up in Lahinch and Miltown Malbay in the past four months, the county now boasts nine surf related businesses. The oldest, the Lahinch Surf Shop, has existed in Lahinch for decades and was Ire- land first surf shop. The other eight, however, have all been established in the last seven years.

“The season really hots up in July and August, but it’s starting to get busy in June and in September as well. There is some level of surfing going on all the year round though,” said Sinead Finn, Manager of the Lahinch Surf School, who operate schools in Lahinch, Spanish Point and Kilkee.

“The Irish Surfing Association were on to us recently inquiring how many lessons we give in Lahi- nch each year and we estimate it to be roughly 7,000. If you add in the

school in Kilkee and Spanish Point the figure is probably around 12,000 each year.”

The surf industry in Clare has con- tinued to grow rapidly year on year

and at present shows no signs of slowing down.

“We don’t seem to be effected by the the recession or the loss of the Shannon-Heathrow flights or any-

thing like that. The vast majority of the people who come to surf are Irish people. We still do get a lot of tour- ists coming through. We have been getting a decent supply of Europe- ans, especially German people,” said Sinead.

“A lot of the people who we deal with are just dropping in, they hap- pen to be in the area already and decide to try surfing. That said, we do get a lot of people coming over from England who are booking a full package weekend of surfing – ac- commodation, surfing the whole lot. As well as that a lot of Irish people come back again and again. And in the second, third and fourth visit they are coming specificially to surf.

‘To be honest the biggest thing that effects us is nothing to do with the re- cession, it’s the weather. If we could get a few weeks of sun then Lahinch would be booming.”

DESPITE all the doom and gloom about recessions and downturns, one north Clare business is beating all the trends.

Last weekend the Lahinch Surf School opened up new premises on Lahinch’s Main Street, bringing to four the company’s representa- tions around the county. The school, which was founded by senior Irish surf champion John McCarthy seven years ago, now operates surf schools in Kilkee, Spanish Point and Lahi- eee

The new premises will serve as a

booking office and surf shop, as well as showcasing some of the areas best SUM ROE- Iho m-vae

“The school has being going since 2002 and we have been based down in the beach-hut on the Prom since Wee

“We will be holding on to the beach-hut, that’s still where it’s all happening, but the shop is going to be somewhere that will be open all year- round and where people can drop in when the weather isn’t great,’ said surf school manager Sinead Finn.

“We will be selling our own brand materials there like t-shirts and tide tables, anything to do with the surf

shop. As well as that we have gotten on to a few local artists and photog- raphers, people like Ann Vaughan from Liscannor who has sent us in a few pieces.

We also have a number of surf pho- tographers from people like Paudie Scanlan and George Karbus, Al McKennon and Mikey Smith.

‘So as well as a shop it 1s an exhi- bition space and people can come in and buy the artwork and photographs TUE A OCA Vane 00

Over the past number of years La- hinch has been transformed into the surf capital of Ireland. Besides the hundreds who flock to the village

throughout the summer months the local surfers also won a place in the Guinness Book of Records in 2007 for the most surfers to surf the same wave at the one time.

School founder, John McCarthy, was also one of the group who first surfed Aileens Wave, the monster wave under the Cliffs of Moher.

The Lahinch Surf School is open seven days a week from 1lam to 6pm and is fully approved by the Irish Surfing Association.

People can book surf lessons at the new surf shop on Main Street, at the Surf-Hut on the Prom or by ringing 087 9609667.