housed in Knockalisheen, near Meelick a few kilometres from the city, following the failed uprising in their country. A few settled, but the majority moved on within a few years to new lives in the UK and North America due to the bad economic situation in Limerick. Shannon Airport also attracted a varied crowd. At this time nearly all transatlantic flights stopped at the airport, the most westerly in Europe, to refuel. Irish Times journalist Arthur Quinlan who was based at Shannon boasts at having interviewed every US president from Harry Truman to George H. W. Bush and many Soviet leaders, including Andrey Vyshinsky and Andrei Gromyko. He also famously taught Fidel Castro how to make an Irish coffee and interviewed Che Guevara. On 13 March 1965, Guevara suddenly arrived at the airport when his flight from Prague to Cuba developed mechanical problems, and Quinlan was on hand to interview him. Guevara talked of his Irish connections through the name Lynch and of his grandmother's Irish roots in Galway. Later, Che, and some of his Cuban comrades, went to Limerick city and adjourned to the Hanratty's Hotel on Glentworth Street. According to Quinlan, they returned that evening all wearing sprigs of shamrock, for Shannon and Limerick were preparing for the St. Patrick's Day celebrations. In 1968, the government published the Buchanan Report on the regional dimension to economic planning which had largely been ignored. The report recommended on the social and economic sustainability of industry in the regions, which gradually lead to investment and improvement in the Limerick area. Celtic Tiger The seemingly sudden economic growth of the 1990s, termed the Celtic Tiger, making Ireland one of the richest countries in the world, had deep foundations stretching back through the 1980s and 1970s. Shipping in Shannon estuary was developed extensively during the period with more than two billion pounds investment. A tanker terminal at Foynes and an oil jetty at Shannon Airport were built. In 1982 a massive alumina extraction plant was built at Aughinish. Now, 60,000-ton cargo vessels carry raw bauxite from West African mines to the plant, where it is refined to alumina. This is then exported to Canada, where it is further refined to aluminium. In 1985, a huge power plant began operating at Moneypoint, fed by regular visits by 150,000-tonne tankers. European Economic Community funding was poured into infrastructure. Industrial estates at Raheen and Plassey (Castletroy),