Interesting Article on Shannon

I worked in Shannon for a few years and never set foot in the place. More recently I dated a woman lived there and I found a fair bit to like about it. The multicultural aspects cool you meet a more interesting a mix of people than you would in Ennis. The estuary walk is nice. The new park is lovely and the playgrounds probably the best in the county.

Night life is rather limited but you certainly couldn't call the Knights particularly rough. There were plenty of older customers keep things sort of civilised. You're close enough to Limerick share a taxi pretty easily so it wasn't like you were totally stuck in any case.

They've finally got a cinema now anyway. That was chronically overdue.

Rental accommodation seems quite limited and expensive there, but sure isn't that the case anywhere there are jobs these days.

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I'd be interested to see how the perspex roofed outdoor streets work somewhere else before pushing the boat out in Ennis. I think with our climate it'd look good for 6 months and rapidly start to weather badly.

If you look at the streets/lanes of Ennis that are pedestrianised that's where the retail seems to be doing worst. It's a nice idea in theory but business do have a little more insight into this stuff. Old people and parents with children and buggies are inevitably going to the shops they can park beside. There's a reason Dunness/Tesco/Aldi/Lidl all have nice big carparks. The independent retailers need those spaces too to drive custom.