Life across the Shannon better for business - and for fun

Ennis is popular with entrepreneurs keen to set up their own business - as the four people profiled here have done.

David Lasbleye, from the French city of Brest, was attracted to Ireland "by the people, who are generous, friendly, welcoming and proud". He worked at the K Club and Patrick Guilbaud's before a chance meeting on a ferry with Clarewoman Anne Leyden brought him to Ennis.

They're partners now, live in Lissycasey and run the Ennis Gourmet Store at Barrack Street. He imports wine and cheese for the shop/café and also provides catering for private house parties. He likes the pace of life and says "Dublin has the same stress as Paris but the old Ireland is still here in Ennis."

Ann Garry-Quish from Dublin moved to Ennis with her Clare-born husband, Vincent Quish, and built a house in Newmarket-on-Fergus. She had worked in HR and was "sick of traffic and sick of the rat race". Now she has fulfilled a long-cherished dream and opened a shop called Intrigato on O'Connell St, which sells ladies' fashions and accessories as well as offering a hat-hire service. She loves the change, finds the people friendly and the town very cosmopolitan and adds: "I was a real Dubliner but now you wouldn't get me out of here." Her children (Ian, 14 and Saoirse, 6) "have excelled since we came here; the schools are brilliant".

Shane O'Neill moved from Co Tipperary and opened the The Art & Craft Co on Merchant's Square which sells art and craft supplies and provides a picture framing service. He and his partner Pam Prendergast live in the "virtually untouched" village of Newmarket-on-Fergus. He's enjoying life in Clare and says "when you cross the Shannon life is much better; there's a warmth in people in the west. Clare people have great spontaneity, are very hospitable and have a good sense of humour."

Yvonne McCabe, a Clare native emigrated to New York in the early 1990s, got a Green Card and eventually became a US citizen.

She worked in Mulligan's, an Irish bar on 39th and Madison Ave in Manhattan. But she decided to return to Ireland and last year opened the Mocha Coffee Co café on Arthur's Row. She had already bought a house in Ennis seven years ago "when the dollar was good".

She finds that Ireland has changed a lot and has become very Americanised. When she emigrated, "there were no jobs here but now there's so much money".

Ennis is a good town for business and the café has been busy since the day it opened.

She has no regrets about returning to Ireland and says a lot of her Irish friends in New York have also come back.