Shannon

Discover Shannon

Shannon is a town and airport in County Clare in the west of Ireland. The airport came first, as a stopover for early transatlantic flights, then an industrial zone and new town grew beside it. These are unattractive: don't worry, Ireland gets better once you drive clear of the airport, and Shannon is a good entry point to this scenic and historic region. In 2022 the town had a population of just over 10,000. In 1946 commercial transatlantic flights re-started after the war, but aircraft range was limited and they faced stiff headwinds going west. Airports were therefore needed as far east as possible in North America, such as Gander in Newfoundland, and as far west as possible in Europe, such as Prestwick in Scotland and Shannon in Ireland. These were also important for military flights, so the airports were equipped with very long runways to handle the largest aircraft, and became hubs of local industry. From the 1950s aircraft speed, range and capacity extended, notably with the Boeing 707, and it was foreseen that these airports would be bypassed once Europe to USA non-stop flight became routine. The response here was to create Shannon Free Zone as a duty-free port and industrial zone. Shannon town itself was built in the 1960s to serve the airport and industrial park, but like other "New Towns" of that era, it was ugly and in parts shoddy. Over the following years its fortunes rose and fell along with the Irish economy, booming during the "Celtic Tiger" years of the 1990s, slumping when the dot-com, property and banking bubbles burst. In the 21st century budget leisure flights greatly expanded, but Dublin airport was the main beneficiary in Ireland. So while Shannon is still a springboard to North America, it's nowadays more a portal for tourism into the scenic west of Ireland.