This article is from page 4 of the 2007-10-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
MAYOR of Clare, Patricia McCa- rthy left the podium at Saturday’s Save Our Slots Rally to thunderous applause, having told Aer Lingus they “can’t give the two fingers to the mid-west’.
Mayor McCarthy was among a list of speakers who castigated Aer Lin- gus and the Government for the deci-
sion to move the Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast.
“My message is simple,” she told the gathered crowds. “Mr Mannion and Aer Lingus, you have made a big mis- take. You have given the two fingers to the Government but you won’t give the two fingers to the mid-west.”
She said that Aer Lingus was ped- dling a “myth and a lie that seat sales are going well in Belfast and the
Government ministers are peddling the same myths and lies.”
Her message for Dublin was, “We are not whingers in the mid-west. We have a problem and we’re getting up and doing something about it. Every- one recognises the injustice of what is happening except the elected Govern- ment. They have the solving of it. Ber- tie 1s the Great Fixer – let him come down here and fix our problem.”
Atlantic Connectivity Alliance’s Michael Vaughan lashed the Gov- ernment for having failed to prepare for the Aer Lingus decision. ““We in business believe there is an answer for those who fail to prepare – it’s a P45 and there are addresses in Dublin I would like to send those to today.”
He added that people should “re- member what has been achieved here. Remember the Flying Boats, remember the first Atlantic crossing. Remember Shannon Development and the Shannon Free Zone and give notice to those who have consigned us in the mid-west to the scrap heap – we will rise again!”
Deputy John Cregan, the only Fian- na Fail TD on the podium, was booed as he told the crowd of almost 10,000 people that he had “listened to your anger and | will be reporting back to the Taoiseach on the importance of this issue to the Shannon region.”
Also on the podium to speak in sup- port of the campaign were the Mayor of Limerick, Ger Fahy and the Ca- thaoirleach of Clare County Council, Cllr Kevin Sheahan.
They were joined by Fine Gael TD, Kieran O’Donnell; Labour TD, Jan O’Sullivan; Impact official, Andy Pike; SIPTU’s Michael Halpenny; Limerick business woman and model agency director, Celia Holman-Lee; and former Munster and Ireland rug- by hero, Peter Clohessey.