A tale of two Shannons: ‘Housing estate after housing estate and the lights go out at 9’

There is no town in Ireland quite like Shannon. Pinned between an airport and a major industrial zone, Ireland’s first planned town never really had a plan.The Co Clare town began in the 1960s as a collection of flats on Drumgeely Hill, built to house workers from nearby Shannon Airport and the Shannon Free Zone.Over the years, the number of homes grew significantly, but without much consideration being paid to the town forming around them.These days Shannon has a population of more than 10,000 people, similar in size to Castlebar or Wicklow town, but lacks many of the amenities and a traditional town centre that other towns take for granted.Shannon also habitually has the highest commercial vacancy rate of any settlement in the country, currently standing at 34.9 per cent, according to An