*Margaret O’Neill, Noreen Hickey, Maura McNamara and Fionnuala Power. Photograph: John Mangan
UP TO 120 retired members from Aer Rianta in Shannon gathered at the Inn at Dromoland on Wednesday last.
Shannon Airport and Aer Rianta International had a proud association which began with the opening of its first duty-free store in 1947.
In March 2018, this long relationship came to an end when the final eleven Shannon based Aer Rianta workers concluded their service, having either been redeployed or took early retirement or a voluntary severance package.
Aer Rianta International managed turnover of €1.1bn in 2022, a leap of 132 percent year-on-year with the figure reaching 91 percent of pre-pandemic levels from 2019.
Scariff-based Liam Skelly who attended Wednesday’s function and was a founding member of Aer Rianta International previously told The Clare Echo that Shannon Airport’s “golden goose” was snatched by Dublin Airport when it was stripped of Aer Rianta International while becoming an independent airport in 2013, the DAA retained control of Aer Rianta International.
Staff at Aer Rianta were always proud of their connection to Shannon Airport and it was evident in Newmarket-on-Fergus last week where their most recent outing took place.
On arrival, attendees were treated to a speciality Irish Coffee made by Kilkishen native, Michael ‘Gazzy’ Collins, he worked in Shannon Airport hospitality for 44 years where he served celebrities including Maureen O’Hara while his technique received esteemed praise in newspapers in New York City.
Gazzy is part of the twelve person committee who meet once a month to try and arrange outings for retired Aer Rianta staff. He explained that that contributions made over the years have helped to fund their outings while the dinner was made possible by the amount of money saved from making contact with their membership of over 300 people over the phone rather than sending out correspondence in the post.
Their contact list is expected to increase following Wednesday’s dinner. “It might develop from the list we took, this goes back the last forty or fifty years and primarily the fund was only in case some people went into hard times. It has accumulated over the years,” the Hurlers Cross resident noted. He acknowledged that Aer Rianta had previously given contributions of €1000 towards them.
“We have the savings from over the years, everybody would have paid a shilling a week and it materialised then over the years that if somebody fell on bad times like a fella who had retired and was confined to a wheelchair and had exhausted all his medical avenues that we were able to offer a bit of support,” he explained.
Trips to the Aran Islands and Waterford are some of the highlights of the group’s ventures over the years.
