This article is from page 2 of the 2007-08-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
FIVE thousand people marched in solidarity with Aer Lingus workers in Shannon on Friday night to signal their anger at the company’s con- troversial decision to terminate the Shannon/Heathrow route.
The event was organised by the Shannon Action Group and was at- tended by workers, local politicians, members of the local business com- munity and community and sporting organisations.
The march took place from the Drumline roundabout and concluded at the Ballymurtagh roundabout on the approach road to Shannon town centre. The crowd was led by the Tulla Pipe Band.
Addressing the crowd assembled at the Ballymurtagh roundabout, Fine Gael TD Pat Breen said there would be “no surrender” until all the Heath- row routes were restored.
Fianna Fail TD Timmy Dooley told the crowd that the Aer Lingus dec- sion placed jobs and future invest- ment in the region at risk.
Deputy Dooley, who topped the poll in Clare, was also critical of Government ministers.
He said, “It is extremely difficult to speak out against the actions of your own government and your own party. But unfortunately the kind of brief- ings that some of our ministers have been giving to the media have shown a scant regard for the concerns of this region.”
Independent MEP for Ireland South, Cathy Sinnot urged people in the mid-west to fight the Aer Lingus decision.
“Open Skies insists that there will be two airports in Europe, Heathrow and Frankfurt, and after that there will one layer of minor hubs and Dublin is fighting very hard to be one of those minor hubs. The big threat to Dublin has always been Shannon.”
Mayor of Shannon, Sean McLough- lin said Shannon wanted all of the Heathrow slots back.
Mayor of Limerick, Ger Fahy said, “The people of Limerick city are absolutely incensed with these pro- posals and they are 100 per cent full square behind the campaign to save our slots.”
The 5,000-strong crowd also heard from Frank Prendergast, Chairman of the Shannon Airport Marketing Consulting Committee, Aer Lingus workers ‘Tony Kinnane and Paul Barry and Jan O’Sullivan, Labour TD for Limerick East.
One of those taking part in the march was Paramyjit Neote, a busi- ness consultant with Cratloe-based PSN consulting.
He said, “We have our own busi- ness here in the aviation industry so we are going to be losing that con- nection to India. If you are taking a flight to India, the Aer Lingus flight was the only connection to Heath- row to catch the flights to India. So it is vital that these flights are main- tained.”