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THE Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) is aiming to increase its trans- atlantic passenger base by 300,000 in the years after the ending of the Shannon stop-over.

The phased ending of the stop-over will come fully into force next April with the introduction of full Open Selene

Currently, the number of North America-bound passengers from Shannon 1s 700,000.

Executive chairman of the SAA, Pat Shanahan said, “In the first cou- ple of years of ‘Open Skies’, we may see a Slight dip in the transaltantic traffic going through Shannon and it may dip from 700,000 to 650,000 but I believe that the volume of traf- fic coming into Ireland with ‘Open Skies’ will increase.

“By 2010 our anticipation will be that Shannon will have 30 per cent of the market and this will equate to about | million passengers. So we in Shannon would be better off in that environment than where we are to- day. There will be a little dip before- hand but as the market continues to grow and develop, there will be more traffic for everyone and Shannon will start growing again,” he said.

On the proposed €53 million pack- age that interest groups in the mid- west are currently lobbying Govern-

ment for, Mr Shanahan said, “I think those funds should be made avail- able.”

He said, “I know the tourist indus- try are worried about the profile of the west of Ireland in the US and the idea was to offset the impact of “Open Skies’ with more tourism marketing over the next five years. That is 1m- portant and it is a fund that needs to be put in place.”

Mr Shanahan said, “I know that people have been fearful that Shan- non will be losing traffic and yes air- lines will make decisions like Amer- ican Airlines who have decided not to come to Shannon.

‘American Airlines have only been flying over the past two years and they came to Ireland in anticipation of “Open Skies’ and it was our belief at an airport level that they would al- ways go to Dublin.”

Mr Shanahan said that the SAA’s transatlantic strategy was key to the success of the airport.

He said: “This winter we have five direct daily services into North America. This is quite an achieve- ment for an environment that is ef- fectively “Open Skies’.”

Mr Shanahan said that Shannon had a very bright and vibrant future following the successful completion of the rationalisation “survival plan” and that this would translate into sub- stantial infrastructural investment.

ARTISTS may endlessly search for their muse but this month, Clare County Council is searching for art- ists.

The local authority has announced that it is currently seeking applica- tions from artists for places at the award-winning ‘Tulla Stables Stu- dios.

“The Tulla Stables Studios is an ideal studio resource for artists of all disciplines,” stated Ms Siobhan Mulcahy, Clare Arts Officer.

“It comprises of six studios each with power and water, four with a mezzanine for storage, an exhibi- tion/workshop spaces, toilets and showers. Provision has been made for broadband in each of the studios. The facility is alarmed and has pri-

vate parking.”

The original building was bought by Clare County Council in 1950 and had been used as a store until it was restored and developed into an arts facility by the Arts Office of Clare County Council with support from Clare County Council and the De- partment of Arts, Sports and Tour- ihe0e

Tulla-based architect Siobhan Mulcahy was the design leader on the Tulla Stables Studios project, which was constructed by local con- struction firm Matthew Sheedy & Company.

In January of this year, the devel- opment was named the ‘Best Public Building’ in Ireland. The title was bestowed on the studio at the an- nual Local Authority Members As- sociation (LAMA) awards hosted by

RTE presenter Miriam O’Callaghan. The Tulla Studio was nominated alongside Cork University Maternity Hospital, Longford Court House, Erasmus Smith House in Tipperary, Johnston’s Central Library in Cavan and Lady Lane Library in Water- ford.

“The Tulla Stables Studios has played a crucial role in keeping art and, more importantly, artists in the local community,” stated Ms Mulc- ree

Commenting on the invitation of applications from artists wishing to take up residency at the studios, she stated, “Interested artists are being given until July 6 2007 to submit their applications. Artists must sub- mit a current CV and a typed cover letter including the proposed use of the studio or gallery/workshop

space, any specific requirements they may have in terms of equipment, the length of time the studio is sought for, and any proposed community involvement or projects.”

Studios will be let initially from September 3, 2007 for a 12-month period. All applications will be placed before an independent selec- tion committee who will make rec- ommendations on the allocation of studios to artists. Final approval of allocations rests with Clare County Council.

Applications should be submitted to: “Tulla Stables Application’, The Arts Office, The County Library, Mill Road, Ennis.

Further information is available from the Clare Arts Office at tel: 065 6846267, fax: 065 6842462 or ema1l: arts @clarelibrary.1ie.

CLARE racing is on high this week following the exploits of Elletelle for the Jesse Club Syndicate at Royal Ascot and Kieren Fallon’s continued rehabilitation as the best jockey in the business.

Elletelle, a 20/1 shot owned by Jack Heaslip, his son Sean, former Clare hurler Enda O’Connor and Steven McCarthy, won the Queen Mary Stakes over five furlongs with John- ny Murtagh in the saddle.

Returning to scenes of celebra- tion more akin to Cheltenham than Royal Ascot, the Ger Lyons trained filly stayed on gamely under a strong Murtagh drive to record a dramatic half-length success in the Group Two Cone

Meanwhile, Kieren Fallon returned to racing action following his six- month riding ban but the Ballin- ruan man continued his impressive comeback with big-race successes in France and Ireland last weekend.

The Ballydoyle number one scored a Surprise win at Saint-Cloud on Sun-

day when the Michael Stoute trained Mountain High upset the hot favour- ite, Mandesha, in the Group One Grand Prix de Saint Cloud.

This Group One success will serve as a timely confidence boost for Fal- lon who is expected to partner the ante-post favourite, Eagle Mountain, in the Budweiser Irish Derby next Sunday.

The 42 year-old confirmed why he is the best in the business at Limerick on Friday when producing a brilliant ride on Honolulu (11/4f) to win the Listed Martin Molony Stakes.

The Ballinruan maestro was record- ing his third success since returning to Irish racecourses when steering Aidan O’Brien’s inexperienced three- year old to a one and half-length vic-

tory in the feature race of the evening at Greenmount Park.

After being pushed along at half- way, the well-backed son of Montjeu responded well to Fallon’s urgings to strike the front at the two furlong pole where he assumed control from the John Oxx trained Athenian Way.

Fallon almost scooped a hat-trick of big-race wins at Down Royal on Sat- urday when narrowly beaten on Song Of Hiawatha in the Ulster Derby.

Looking ahead to Sunday Irish Derby, Fallon revealed that Eagle Mountain’s “form is solid and, when he won the Beresford Stakes, we knew he was our Derby horse.”

“His run in the Derby was great and he was beaten by one of the best winners we’ve seen for a while. Af- ter Authorized went on, he was rid- den for second and that run will have stood him in good stead,” he added.

A CLAIM by Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary that the redundancy pack- ages negotiated at Shannon were “off the wall” was yesterday criticised by the Executive Chairman of the Shan- non Airport Authority (SAA), Pat Shanahan.

Asked for his reaction to Mr O’Leary’s comments, Mr Shanahan said, “I don’t think that language 1s sensible at all. We are in a semi-state environment and in a voluntary re- dundancy situation, you have got to make it attractive for people to leave a sound secure job… the package was obviously right on the money be- cause of the number of people that

have taken it.”

Mr O’Leary said, “We’re paying people €150,000 to take up redun- dancy voluntarily and the only peo- ple paying for that are going to be ORONO ECE

“We simply can’t afford these kind of semi-state-type pay offs if we are going to develop a thriving low cost airport like Shannon that is going to be a gateway into the west of Ire- land.”

Asked whether Shannon was be- coming too reliant on Ryanair, Mr Shanahan said, “I don’t think so. For our short haul business Ryanair has been hugely successful. They have delivered on all their commitments they’ve made to us, we have been

working hard and the route selection is correct for Shannon.

“Ryanair has brought a strong com- bination of outbound Irish tourism and inbound year round European tourism. The relationship has gone well, but they are not the only game in town. We haven’t given up on Aer Lingus basing an aircraft in Shannon for European routes.

“Ryanair is a significant player and… and I would expect them to put a fifth aircraft into Shannon early next summer.

Mr Shanahan anticipates that Rya- nair will account for 1.7 million pas- sengers out of Shannon this year. He said, “Before we did the deal, Rya- nair was at 300,000.”

AN OUTING involving 27 members of one family would be a big enough deal if the family were going down

the road for a picnic.

But 80-year old Eileen Springer from the US took the family outing concept to a whole new level when she brought the clan back to Cratloe, Galway and Kerry to revisit the fam- ily roots.

The Chicago octogenarian has wanted to give her family a gift of joining her on a trip to Ireland for

many years, her daughter in law Kit- ty Springer explained.

“This is something my mother in law has wanted to do for a long time. There’s so many of us that the easiest thing to do was to hire a bus to bring us all around,” said Kitty.

The party is made up of several generations, consisting of Eileen’s six children, their spouses and a gag- gle of grandchildren.

Eileen’s father, Patrick Cherry came from Cratloe and her great- erandfather from Galway, so the grand Springer tour started in Crat- loe last week.

“Her father, Patrick, came to the US in 1924 to become a priest but left before taking his final vows. He met and married Elileen’s mother in New York and the rest is history,’ said Kitty.

This trip was Kitty’s third visit to Ireland but she hadn’t been here for 33 years.

‘| have many cousins here and now this time, there were two new gen- erations to meet.”

The Springer family on tour visited east Clare, Galway, Kilkenny and the Dingle Penninsula, Kitty explained.

“We even got to kiss the Blarney

stone – you can imagine how much noise there was after that with 27 of us all gabbing away.”

The week-long visit finished with a visit to Bunratty Castle where the Springers enjoyed a banquet and me- dieval entertainment before flying home via Shannon.

THE call has gone out for coaches interested in taking a role with the FAI’s emerging talent programme in Clare.

The Clare People Schoolboys/Girls soccer league (CPSSL) are inviting applicants for a number of volun- tary coaching and management po- sitions that need to be filled for the 2007/2008 season.

Two head coaching positions are needed for the under 11 squad made up of players born in 1996. One head coaching position with the under 12 squad (players born in 1995) must be filled. Two head coaches are needed for the under 13 squad (players born in 1994). The league committee are also inviting applications for the po- sition of Kennedy Cup manager.

Interested applicants must hold the

minimum Kick Start | coach educa- tion qualification and must be will- ing to work alongside the CPSSL and the FAI Regional Development Officer with regard to his/her coach- ing position.

New coaches and managers will also be required to report to the CPSSL committee at intervals and must be willing to meet FAI emerging talent programme criteria, 1n particular to hold 34 sessions from August 2007 to June 2008 at the Lees Road sports complex.

The aim of the Emerging Talent programme is to identify, monitor, and develop players from age 11 to 16 that are capable of reaching their full potential.

Through the programme for under- age talent in Clare aged from 11 to 16, the FAI are seeking to develop the game outside the traditional ur-

ban centres of Cork and Dublin.

The programme has been developed along similar guidelines to many of the European Countries such as Italy, France, Germany and Holland. The major difference between those pro- erammes and the FAI’s 1s that each Emerging Talent Squad is coached and administrated by qualified lo- cal people in each of the 33 school- boys/girls leagues in the country. The CPSSL agreed to join the FAI’s emerging talent programme last Sep- tember.

The coaching sessions are designed and implemented in line with an age appropriate syllabus to try and pro- duce all round players.

FAI Regional Development Officer Denis Hynes said, “One of the ma- jor differences in the programme is that the players are not exposed to “competitive” football as often. The

priority is the development of the in- dividual players and their all round OL EO) ITU OLS CSE

“With this in mind we have found that too much competitive football and the atmosphere around it is re- strictive to the development of play- ee

Eventually it is hoped, the players will be able to have the confidence and talent to express themselves in competitive situations such as Kennedy Cup and Umbro Cup. Each League Emerging Talent Squad has to meet strict set criteria during and at the end of year in order to receive funding from the FAI. All coaching and management positions a re re- viewed at the end of the season.

Any persons interested should reply in writing, by July 10, to Clive Slater, Secretary of CPSSL, Ballymalone, Tuamgraney.

THE Executive Chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA), Pat Shanahan, has confirmed that €150 million will be spent on capi- tal investment at the airport over the next 10 years.

Mr Shanahan also confirmed that Shannon was on course to make a profit this year and that the Marsh Point Bar — closed last year as part of cutbacks at the airport — 1s to re-open

in the next number of weeks.

Mr Shanahan last Friday briefed airport employees on the future di- rection of Shannon following the 1m- plementation of the “survival plan”’.

Mr Shanahan said, “Morale among staff is positive. We have got to a very significant change in Shannon so there is going to be a period of time where people are unsure of their environment. Practically every job in the airport has changed so there will be a settling-in period.

“But after two years of discussion and negotiations, people were more than relieved that we have actually come to a conclusion, particularly the employees remaining in Shan- non. We are quite anxious to move on and turn Shannon into a vibrant international airport and get to a lev- el of exceeding the customer services Where Shannon was always deemed to be a friendly face.”

With traffic levels at currently 3.6 million, Mr Shanahan said that the SAA had ambitions to breach the five million mark in the next number of years.

“We don’t want to be overly opti- mistic either, we want to be realistic about what we can achieve. We are optimistic that we can achieve the figure of five million in a sensible time period,” he said.

“We are currently growing at 10 per cent per annum and 1 the vari- ous markets continue to expand, then we will get close to it very soon. It is a very cyclical industry so it is very difficult to predict what might hap- jeer

Mr Shanahan said that there were no immediate plans to lodge a busi- ness plan for the airport to Govern- ment. He said, “Our focus has been on implementing and making sure we have our cost base right.

He said, “We hope that we would have a very clear picture of the vi- ability of the airport at the back end of this year.”

A RAILING which will stop impetu- ous youngsters from darting out un- der the wheels of cars has become a critical need in an east Clare estate.

Cllr Pascal Fitzgerald has called on county council officials to step in and erect railings between Thorn- brook Estate and the main Athlunk- ard Road.

At a recent local area meeting, Cllr Fitzgerald said that youngsters are regularly hoping out on to the main

road as a shortcut to the shops.

“The developer is reluctant to have this railing erected. I feel that Clare County Council should erect a rail- ing and furnish the bill for the total cost to the developer. The residents have had to wait long enough for this matter to be sorted. Local Gardai are aware that this is frequently used by youths as a quick exit onto the main road. It is only a matter of time be- fore somebody is injured,’ the coun- cillor said.

Councillor Fitzgerald said that he

has been asking for something to be done to make the situation safer for a long period and felt his only option to secure action was to make an of- ficial request by way of a motion for the local area meeting.

In an official written reply to the councillor’s motion, a senior council official said that as the development is not yet in public charge, the matter is the responsibility of the developer.

“T will endeavour to have them complete the section of missing rail- ing as soon as possible.

However, I am aware of the prob- lem there and indeed have received correspondence from the Gardai myself on this matter. The fact that it bounds a busy regional road is a concern. Accordingly, I have sought prices on the completion of the 50m section approx. of railing. I will dis- cuss with my colleagues in planning enforcement and if itis in order to do so, and funding permitting, I will ar- range for the erection of the railings in the near future,’ the official said.

THE Clare People Schoolboys/Girls soccer season officially gets under- way next weekend.

In all, 13 games are set to be played across five divisions in both the un- der 11 and under 12 leagues.

The matches will be the first to be played since the CPSSL league made the decision to switch the soccer schedule from summer to winter.

The action gets underway this Thursday (June 28) with three games down for decision in the Michael Woods Perpetual under 11 division oy iter

The new crop of players from Ennis Town and Avenue United get their first taste of an Ennis derby when the sides meet on Thursday evening.

Elsewhere Lifford A take on the club who finished runners up in the division last year when west Clare side Moneypoint AFC make their first trip to Lees road.

Last year’s division two title was narrowly won by Avenue United B after a thrilling duel with Tulla United.

Avenue B face east Clare opposi- tion in their opening encounter with a tough away test to Bridge United.

In the same division Corofin Harps have a home tie on Thursday against Fern Celtic A and Ennis Town B host Mountshannon Celtic at the Ennis

National. Burren United make their debut in the schoolboy league with a home tie

against Avenue United C. Lifford B take on Cratloe Celtic in Lees Road also on Thursday. Fern Celtic, the

club who clinched last season’s di- vision three championship, will be hoping for more success this year.

They get their campaign underway with an away tie to another rising club, St Pats.

On Saturday the action moves up a division when the under 12 league swings into action.

And the first meeting of the season brings together the two clubs who pushed each other all the way for last season’s league title.

Avenue eventually edged out Ennis Town to finish top. The clubs re-con- vene at the Ennis National at llam on Saturday.

Two clubs who will be looking to make up the ground are Lifford and Moneypoint who meet later that same day in Lees Road.

There’s a strong east Clare flavour to the opening games in division two of the under 12 league.

In Sixmilebridge, Bridge United face Tulla United while in the newly re-developed McDonough Memorial Park Newmarket Celtic take on Crat- loe Celtic.

ENTERPRISE Ireland this week launched a campaign in the mid-west region which aims to help companies which will be involved in export get a start in the mid-west.

The new campaign will target high calibre entrepreneurs and aims to en- courage the creation of new export- focussed start-up companies in the Kssca (one

Aspiring entrepreneurs, with the potential to develop a manufacturing or internationally-traded services company are being invited to contact Enterprise Ireland.

Commenting at the campaign launch Brendan Flood, head of re- gions and entrepreneurship at En- terprise Ireland said, “Increasing the number of new high-growth export focused businesses is a key objective for Enterprise Ireland and we are

committed to supporting the estab- lishment of new, highly innovative businesses in the mid-west region.

“We’re interested in hearing from entrepreneurs who believe they may have both a business idea and the skills necessary to establish and erow a new company with export erowth potential.”

Since January 1, 2007, the functions relating to indigenous enterprises in the mid-west regiontransferred from Shannon Development to Enterprise Ireland.

The body is due to be decentralised to Shannon under the national decen- tralisation programme.

Aspiring entrepreneurs should con- tact Enterprise Ireland at 061 503039 or Enterprise Ireland’s Regional Headquarters in Westpark, Shannon on 061 429900. Alternatively they can log on to www.enterprise-ire- land.com.