TheHarpNews.com

March Edition 2007

The Harp joins forces with Ryanair

By Enda Mullen

Sister Helen takes the controls of Ryanair’s East Midlands’ cabin crew Boeing 737-800 trainer with the assistance of Sister Sabina

Flying nuns were out in force when a contingent of sisters from St Francis' Church in Birmingham took to the skies courtesy of Ryanair and The Harp on Tuesday February 27th.
The Harp teamed up with Ryanair to mark the launch of Ryanair's new service to Knock, the home of Ireland's famous Marian Shrine. Ryanair invited 20 nuns from St Francis' to travel on the inaugural flight and the Harp sponsored a coach to get take them to and from East Midlands Airport.
Before taking off the nuns had fun on the flight deck after being given access to Ryanair's cabin crew trainer - a replica brand-new Boeing 737-800 series aircraft.
The event marked the launch of nine other new Ryanair routes from East Midlands too.
The Irish airline now flies to Alghero, Bratislava, Granada, Inverness, Krakow, Milan, Pisa, Santiago and Valencia, bringing the total number of Ryanair routes from East Midlands to 29.
With these ten new destinations, Ryanair has increased fivefold
the number of passengers it
carries to and from East Midlands in under a year, making it the largest airline at the airport.
In 2007, 1.8m passengers are expected to tra-vel with Ryanair to and from
East Midlands.
Caroline Baldwin, Ryanair's sales and marketing manager for the
UK, said: "We are delighted to celebrate the launch of these fabulous new routes.
"This expansion has been achieved through Ryanair's investment in three new aircraft, bringing the total number of Ryanair aircraft based in East Midlands to five. Ryanair now has almost 25 per cent of total traffic at East Midlands Airport and our commitment to the region is reflected in the heavy investment
we have made in these new
routes. These three based aircraft will also create 150 new highly-paid direct jobs."

Irelands Eurovision Entry
Dervish, the traditional music band from Sligo is set to perform the song titled ‘They can’t stop the Spring’ for Ireland at the 2007 Eurovision song contest.
The song composed by John Waters and Tommy Moran was chosen by telephone vote after Dervish’s performance on RTÉ. The contest will be held in Helsinki the capital of Finland on the 12th of May.

Dumped In Cork
An illegal Dump has been uncovered in Co. Cork.
It is thought that a skip hire company has been depositing waste on the site in Glanmire without permission. Gardaí supported Cork’s County Council in entering the site for examination.

Trainer Fined
Irelands popular greyhound trainer pleaded guilty of being in possession of illegal performance enhancing supplements.
Paul Hennessey from Co. Kilkenny was fined €4,200 at Kilkenny’s District Court after the supplements were found in 2005. Paul denied knowing that the supplements were banned and never tried to conceal them.