Today saw the culmination of our quest to find Clare’s Greatest Ever Person.
Over the past few months, just over 6,500 votes have been cast for nearly fifty people, and today we revealed the top three. Ex-Clare captain Anthony Daly of Clarecastle was third, while the hurling connection remained with the two-time All Ireland winning manager Ger Loughnane from Feakle garnering the second highest number of votes. However, the most popular choice of Clare FM listeners was Brendan O’Regan, the Sixmilebridge businessman, innovator and peacemaker.
We celebrated Dr. O’Regan’s legacy in the only fitting place – Shannon Airport, the Airport which he had led for so many successful years. The current Deputy CEO of Shannon Group Mary Considine joined us at first, along with Fr. Harry Bohan of Sixmilebridge and Liam Skelly, a former Director of Shannon Airport. Its current Director Andrew Murphy led us on a tour of Shannon, highlighting how Brendan O’Regan’s pioneering spirit continues there to this day, with the likes of its modern Duty Free shop – a concept that he, of course, invented – and the US pre-clearance facility which came to Shannon in 2009, making it the first Airport outside of the Americas to secure such a facility.
We also met a number of former staff at Shannon Airport who recounted their memories of working there, and of Dr. O’Regan, while his children Carmel and Declan spoke of their honour in that their father had been chosen for this unique accolade by the Clare public. Finally, we also revealed how a plaque, made of Liscannor limestone by Kilnamona sculptor Michael McTigue, which commemorates Brendan O’Regan being named as Clare’s Greatest Ever Person, is to go on display at the Clare Museum in Ennis, and that they plan to stage an exhibition in 2019 to mark 80 years since the first flight there. John Rattigan of the Museum joined us for that.
You can listen back to our special feature below:
Also on Friday’s Morning Focus, Gavin looked at a recent HIQA monitoring report of St Joseph’s Hospital in Ennis and spoke first to Susan Cliffe, the watchdog’s Deputy Chief Inspector of Older Peoples’ Services; then to Bernard Gloster, Chief Officer with HSE Midwest Community Healthcare.
MEP Seán Kelly joined the show on a visit to Clare and Pat Fitzgerald made a call for GAA clubs to nominate volunteers for Sunday’s big hurling match between the Banner and the Deise.
