This article is from page 32 of the 2007-04-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 32 JPG
COLLEAGUES and friends of Shan- non Town Clerk Tomas MacCormaic gathered last week, to mark his 25 years in his job.
Tomas joined with his colleagues for a night out, under the pretence that the reason for the celebration was the birth of his granddaugh- ter Aoife. Aoife is the newly-born daughter of Tomas’ son Padraig, who works alongside his father at Shan- non Town Hall.
“They decided they would catch me out. The Town Manager Ger Dol- lard raised a glass and said ‘Every- one knows why we are here, except one person…that was me,” laughed Tomas.
A native of Kilkishen, Tomas first began working in Shannon 54 years ago. He worked in the duty free sec- tion of Shannon airport and with tex- tile company Lana Knit for a number of years.
“T cycled in to Shannon for my first three years working in Shannon,’ he recalled.
He and his wife Eithne (who passed away in 1994) had nine children and the cost of rearing them prompted Tomas to take up a part-time post as Town Clerk, in 1982.
“T did it initially to supplement the income. Now I am doing it as a hob- by. I enjoy it tremendously. I wouldn’t do it otherwise,” he said.
“I go to the States every year, with the mayor, as a representative and I
go to different parts of the country. I love it. There are occasions when you have bad days, but there are not Kolo meek DALVOvMnAal sss MMB A oMCT-BLCE
Tomas is very outgoing and his fa- vourite part of the job is mingling with people in Shannon.
‘The best part is working with the community. You feel as if you are doing something with the communi- ty. All of my nine children are living and working in Shannon,” he said.
‘I have seen several changes over the years. The biggest change was in 1959, when Shannon Development was formed and industry came to the place. Before that, it was just the air- port,’ he said.
“The take over by Clare County Council three years ago was a huge
thing for the town and for the coun- cil. Ideally the town should have been given full town council status, like Ennis and Kilrush,’ he said.
Tomas leads a very busy life. He enjoys around of golf and is very in- volved with Wolfe Tones GAA club. He is a former chairman of the Youth Council and has been involved with various residents associations in Shannon over the years.
Tomas was presented with a piece of Genesis, in the form of an owl, to mark the milestone, which he proudly displays on his office desk at Shannon Town Hall.