How sailing can boost local economies

Report published by the Irish Times this week.

Schull in West Cork has been awarded the World Team Racing Championships in 2011 by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) meeting in Korea.

The event is expected to attract 25 teams and over 300 sailors.

The ISAF also appointed Dun Laoghaire’s Con Murphy an international race officer at the conference in Busan this week.

Vivion Kennedy and Mervyn Dyke lift the Waterhouse Shield tonight for the most successful Dublin Bay Sailing Club (DBSC) yacht in handicap classes.

The result was achieved in Cruisers Two class in the yacht Jawesome II.

Among other presentations tonight at the awards ceremony for the country’s biggest racing club in the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, is the George Arthur Newsom Cup for the most successful yacht in one-design classes, won by Guy Kilroy in Swift.

Next weekend’s ICRA conference in Kilkenny includes a talk by John Murphy of Kinetic, the Division Two national champion, on how to prepare a boat for a major regatta.

There will also be debate on whether the White Sails fleet should have a national championships or is such an event contrary to the concept of the White Sail initiative?

Fáilte Ireland report into the financial success of Galway’s staging of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) will reveal that nearly €60 million was generated in June. That figure suggests at least half that figure could be harvested from the sea annually and hundreds of full-time jobs created if ports around the coast followed the lead provided by the race stopover in Galway.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, particularly those in Government: we are living on an island, with hundreds of miles of scenic coastline. Now that Galway has shown the way, the opportunity to do the same at other ports should be grasped, otherwise the memories of two weeks on the west coast will just float away on the tide.

As much as sailors here might have hoped for a stronger performance from both Irish-inspired entries in the VOR, this morning’s publication of a Deloitte report into what Ireland gleaned from this Round the World event will be proof enough that there were many ways to win the race.

The report, presented by Fáilte Ireland chairman Redmond O’Donoghue and Galway organisers John Killeen and Enda O’Coineen, will show that Ireland had the highest spend per-capita-head of any of the nine stopover ports. For Irish sailing, it demonstrates in unambiguous terms the potential of what can come in on the tide.

In the biggest influx of people in to Galway city since the Papal visit, 600,000 people watched the in-port races and the pro-am event in the bay.

It was the first time the event had stopped in Ireland, and the fleet stayed for two weeks.

When they left, the skippers were unanimous that it had been the most hospitable time of the race, a Fáilte Ireland coup of so much benefit it is hard to quantify.

But this morning’s detailed analysis (already put at €80 million by Galway Tourism on Twitter this week) is proof to the public and the Government ­ that this yachting event was a profitable exercise and not a decadent extreme.

This is its most important legacy, because it will demonstrate just how much Ireland’s ports and harbours can contribute to economic growth.

But now that June’s craic and festivities have sailed away, Irish sailing needs to concentrate on taking all it can from the largest State investment (€10 million) in sailing ever made.

Galway docks was transformed, but the progress needs to continue. It took the arrival of the Volvo 70 fleet to prompt a 25-berth marina there. Sail away from this modest pontoon and there are only two other facilities on the entire western seaboard, Ireland’s beautiful but very inaccessible 300-mile stretch of coast.

If there is to be any material legacy, it must be a marina for Galway – not of 25 berths but 200 as a clear signal that we are serious about providing marine infrastructure.

That would mean Galway could become a serious ocean race component given its geographical advantage for many transatlantic fixtures that currently bypass Ireland.

Although Galway is short-listed as a stopover for the VOR again in 2011, the delivery of another team entry in the event now seems essential.

The Green Dragon yacht generated in excess of €30 million worth of global media coverage, a figure ahead of all the other competing teams. Around 10,000 school children got a chance to go on board the boat in Galway docks as part of the biggest free festival ever staged here.

The tourism produced was vital to Galway, and it could be just as vital to all Irish coastal towns because it offers employment possibilities at each one of this country’s 900 harbours.

Specialist skills have been gained in putting two race entries into the race and in organising the Galway stopover. We must capture this knowledge before it sails off to distant shores.

The knowledge must be shared, not just among a small bunch of professionals sailors for whom the race was financially valuable but among a wider audience who can be motivated for future projects.

Immediately after the event, one of the biggest participant sporting events in the country kicked off on the east coast. The Galway focus was on eight boats, but Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta had 470 boats and 3,500 sailors afloat on Dublin Bay in July. It’s an indication of the size and the potential of the domestic sailing scene here.

Racing was in 22 classes and, with a steady influx of visitors from across the Irish Sea, it was worth up to €3 million to the local economy, according to an Irish Marine Federation (IMF) survey.

In September, Belfast staged the Tall Ships visit, bringing €10 million in tourism revenues.

These are all positive reasons why the Government must look more closely at our coastline as a means of providing employment. Irish sailing is punching above its weight, generating up to €100 million in tourism revenue this year from these two events alone. Sailing is a unique model because it combines mass spectator appeal with a thriving domestic scene and, in this climate, that’s a miracle from the sea.

This is especially so because the sport is doing this against the odds. How can Ireland hope to exploit such high-yield tourism without basic marine infrastructure, such as berths for boats? There are more berths in north Wales, for example, than there are around our entire coast.

Spokesmen for our sport can help by making sound-bytes for exploring a set of marine projects.

These employers would be in activity tourism and niche manufacturing and services. Some of the projects would bring balanced regional development to the Atlantic coast.

For example, a small sail-making firm was set up in Crosshaven in 1974. It’s still there and it’s a thriving small business that designs and exports sails all over the world.

Government agencies would do well to engage with boating organisations to make more of this happen. The Irish did not win the Round the World race, but there are still plenty of victories to be had on our shoreline, as today’s results will show.

In our long history, only a few generations have had a chance to develop our coast. We should pay any price to get these facilities in place. Clubs and other marine bodies should use the two weeks in Galway to form a think­tank with a view to unlocking the potential that lies in our harbours.

A high-level forum could develop a national strategy for promoting water-based events that attract high-spend tourism. Dun Laoghaire regatta and Cork Week, the two biggest regattas in Ireland, should be involved.

Now we know the value of what can come in on the waves, it needs to get the tourism recognition it deserves. There are estimates that the industry is capable of growing by 20 per cent if we can bring together various different interests that organise regattas and events and draw up a national policy for maritime tourism.

In 2011, we will play host to the International Sailing Federation’s Team Racing Worlds, and in 2012 the Youth Worlds. The J24 and Olympic Star class keelboats will stage their World and European titles here in 2011. Kinsale will host the Dragon Gold Cup in 2012.

Ireland has an advantage in sailing events and can play an important part in developing our natural resources for the benefit of our people. Thousands want to come here to sail if we just develop the facilities. And all that requires is some courage, ­ Galway-style.

Tourists accused of vandalism

Tourists have been accused of causing irreversible damage to the Burren's fragile landscape.

Visitors were today said to have unwittingly engaged in 'environmental vandalism' through their habit of erecting miniature dolmens throughout the region.

A new pilot programme has been launched which is aimed at removing the recently produced stone structures and highlighting the damage they do to the local environment.

The Burren Connect Project, which has developed the new programme in conjunction with Clare County Council, said the erection of hundreds of mini-dolmens close to a viewing point at Ballyallaban, near Ballyvaughan, has caused serious damage to the surrounding limestone pavement.

The Burren is an area of limestone rock covering some 50 square miles in north County Clare. It is listed as a “Priority Habitat” in the European Habitats Directive (1992) and is protected by law.

“Unique and vulnerable habitats are being destroyed by visitors when they illegally remove protected limestone pavement to build miniature dolmens and other stone structures. However, we believe that most visitors do not want to deliberately damage the Burren pavements, as they do not realise the full environmental impacts of their actions,” said Carol Gleeson, project manager with The Burren Connect Project

The project is funded and supported by the Fáilte Ireland National Development Fund, Clare County Council, Shannon Development, National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Geological Survey of Ireland, the Heritage Council and Burrenbeo Trust.

Galway Tourism weathering the effects of economic downturn well

Galway City and County is set to buck the national downturn in tourism to hold its own on last year with the domestic and European markets driving up numbers in their search for value breaks.


The number of tourists coming to the West of Ireland from the UK will be down by up to 20% – due in the most part to the weakness of sterling – while the American market has also regressed by 15% to 20%, which is being blamed on poor consumer sentiment, according to early figures from the industry.


However in the first glimmer of hope since the recession hit, local Galway tourism chiefs are adamant that Galway City, Connemara and the islands are likely to fare better than anywhere else in the country this Summer. Bookings from Germany and France have strengthened, while there has been an upsurge in interest from Irish people who are spurning overseas holidays due to falling wages and lost jobs.


The biggest travel agencies are reporting a 40% drop in bookings for foreign holidays by locals. However hotels, B&Bs and traditional family holiday destinations such as seaside caravan parks are reporting stronger bookings than in previous years, particularly since the weather improved in late May.

East Galway Féile Bia food festival

The inaugural East Galway Food Festival takes place at St Brendan’s Home, Loughrea this Saturday from 12 noon to 5pm.

The festival will be held in honour of Stoney Brennan, a local character who was hanged for stealing a turnip long ago. The festival aims to highlight the quality of locally-produced food, the music and folklore of the district, and the nearby Slieve Aughty mountains.

Among the events organised will be a BBQ in aid of Enable Ireland, and a concert of music, song, and poetry. There will be 20 stalls providing a wide range of fruit, vegetables, fine foods, and crafts. There will also be bouncy castles, face painting, and a picnic area.

Stalls can still be organised and the entrants for the bread making competition are still welcome.

Finding Authentic Ireland in Galway City

As Ireland continues its great leapfrog from the 19th century to the 21st, it can be hard to find a genuine sense of Irishness, that indefinable essence that makes the country what it is. Even we Irish are aware that the wonderful jumble of poets, reprobates, revolutionaries and saints that inhabited every bar stool are less in evidence in the newly money-oriented land that looks increasingly like England's Manchester, Poland or even Disneyland.

"Nothing is the same anymore," a woman from Boston said to me in Galway City recently. "I know I'm in Ireland; I just don't feel it. What's up with those stupid World War II amphibious bus tours in Dublin, and the stag-night mobs in Dublin's Temple Bar? Now I'm in Galway, and I can hardly feel it! Where's Ireland -- that's what I want to know!"

The place she was most likely to find the Ireland of her expectations was here in Galway. It is truly a place apart. A warren of cobbled streets, medieval buildings and quirky, intimate bars, with an ebullient population that is forever throwing street parties, arts festivals and parades. It's as if the memory of the famine, which hit this part of Ireland hardest, has left the people with a determination to celebrate their good fortune each day. They manage to make the place feel like a rain-drenched, wind-swept mix of Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco.

The Bostonian was about to wander off in disillusionment when a young man with flashing eyes and long, curly hair approached dressed in the billowing white blouse of a Romantic poet and said a literary tour was about to start. The Cúirt literary festival was on, and so I encouraged her to join the tour.

Two women were on the steps of the Town Hall Theatre playing the roles of tour guides from hell, pointing out invisible fire exits and insisting there be no flash photography, as "although we are beautiful, neither of us are photogenic." The Bostonian's frown lifted just a little. "We won't be showing you the Claddagh, or the Spanish Arch, or Lynch's Castle," the guides said, "so if you want any of that old tourist claptrap, you can [leave] now." We were all smiling openly by this stage. The woman had found what she was looking for.

This was an Ireland I could be proud of, an Ireland I wanted to share with wandering Bostonians. The wonderful thing about Galway is that it embraces strangers in a way that would make the people of Dublin or Belfast wince with unease. Everyone is welcome to join the party.

The residents exude a self-confidence that belies their city's small size, possibly arising from the fact that they've kept in touch with their roots in a way that those in few other towns have: The ferry still brings in people a few times a day from the remote Aran Islands, and buses bring in folk from the Gaelic-speaking villages in the surrounding wilderness of Connemara.

The locals' ease with themselves and their culture can be seen in the way they speak Irish (Gaelic) on the streets in a manner that no other city's residents do, and in the way they serve simple, wholesome food with confidence. You'll find better traditional music in Galway than in any other large town or city in Ireland and theater on a par with (or better than) Dublin's.

But it's the festivals that really set Galway apart: the St. Patrick's Day Parade in March, Cúirt in April, the Galway Arts Festival in July, the Galway Races in August, the Galway International Oyster Festival in September, the Baboró children's festival in October, and all the various street parades run by Macnas (Ireland's leading community-based street-performance company), plus mini theater festivals runs by Druid (the country's most innovative and accomplished theater company). Everyone gets involved, dressing up, painting their faces and drumming till they drop for the street parades, or wildly cheering on the Galway Hookers (brown-sailed traditional turf boats) as they sail through the Claddagh basin at annual events.

When our literary tour arrived at Eglinton Canal, the guides, who grew increasingly ridiculous as they went along, explained how for a long time after the canal was built people used to forget it was there and walk straight into the water. "Like this . . .," they said, and suddenly a man plunged into the canal and began to scream and shout. The guides shrugged and moved us briskly along.

The tour wound on in this manner for an anarchic three hours, occasionally stumbling upon historic figures (a leader of Ireland's 1798 rebellion fleeing from his mistress and a young poet having her belongings thrown out the window of a garret). It was a quixotic, hyper-surreal, literary wonderland played out on the city's streets. Irishness personified.

Ireland, to be truly Irish, needs a touch of anarchy, and that's something Galway, despite the country's increasingly strait-laced corporate image, will never forget.

By Manchán Magan, sourced from The Washington Post, Sunday, June 28, 2009

Enjoy weekend fun in the West of Ireland

When booking a long weekend in Ireland many might be drawn to the nightlife, history and shopping offered by Dublin on the east coast. But Ireland’s west coast holds just as much fun and culture, while retaining its natural beauty and value.

The medieval city of Galway is a whirlwind of activity with a wonderful selection of pubs, markets and modern art. The shops and restaurants run along a mile of original cobbled streets scattered with pretty churches, making the heart of the city easy to walk.

Galway market, open every Saturday, has a wonderful variety of local produce, including fresh breads, dips and oils.

And Sheridan’s store, next to the market, has a vast array of pungent cheeses, intense chutneys and cured meats.

With their try-before-you-buy sales pitch, it is easy to lose a couple of hours there.

Food is definitely a large part of the Galway experience, with hundreds of great restaurants, ranging from Italian, fresh fish or top beef burgers. And if fine dining is required, the Ard Bia restaurant has some of the best Galway has to offer.

But if it’s a good old Irish craic you’re after, Taaffes Pub on Shop Sreet has traditional music on most nights.

With the Guinness flowing, it’s easy to dance the night away to the fantastic rhythms and beautiful voices.

It would be easy to snooze the day away in the spa, but Galway is surrounded by rich history and beautiful scenery that has to be explored.

The Connemara National Park is a must-see for garden lovers. With breathtaking views, it is situated in the heart of west Ireland near Letterfrack, and covers some 2,000 hectares of scenic mountains, heaths and grasslands.

With top food and shopping, excellent entertainment and a fantastic choice between unwinding or touring the beautiful countryside west Ireland has to offer, the city of Galway really does have it all.

Leg 7 start hampered by bad weather

A rolling fog-bank swept across Boston Harbor on Saturday afternoon, one of the most notorious stages of the Volvo Ocean Race started in front of a crowded race village and spectator fleet. And then it started again, and, for a time, it appeared that a third start might even be on the cards. But in the context of a 2,550-mile leg, such trivialities were mere window-dressing for the seven-strong fleet now sailing hard towards Galway.

The final oceanic stage of the 39,000-mile race is likely to be the final test of stamina and durability as under 2,000-miles of coastal racing will remain when the fleet departs Irish waters on Saturday, June 6th.

A reminder of what lies ahead quickly arrived as the cold fog and gusty breeze arrived. As the count-down sequence got under way the 10-minute gun fired, but the start was signalled too early and chaos ensued as the fleet split between those who began the leg and those which had spotted the error and returned.

Twenty minutes later, the start went flawlessly and the fleet raced away to the first turning mark on the harbour. Except that a bulk carrier was entering the port and, as local security regulations require clear passage for such vessels, Roberto Bermudez on Team Delta Lloyd fell foul of the Coastguard patrol boat and was ushered astern of the tanker as the other six racers escaped and opened up distance.

The delay was mostly academic, as the Limerick-owned boat soon caught up and a protest for redress seems improbable.

For the benefit of the crowd, it was Bouwe Bekking and the inshore specialists on Telefonica Blue that led the pack, and even Ireland’s Green Dragon team held their own in third place before their adoptive home crowd.

Having secured additional sponsorship of a substantial six-figure sum on Friday last, skipper Ian Walker and his team are a happier bunch, though the deal with United Games now places the crew under the scrutiny of the 208,000-strong online virtual gaming community.

However, New England homeboy Kenny Read on Puma Ocean Racing was having none of it and soon over-hauled the dragons, determined that, having failed to get on the podium arriving into America or during the In-Port races, he should at least put up a show leaving Boston.

That show continued to improve as the fleet headed off into thick fog and fresh south-easterly winds that saw the boats dodge lobster pots as they headed north around a whale protection zone en route to the leg scoring-gate off Newfoundland.

It is almost guaranteed that the feet will experience similar gale conditions at some stage over the leg.

However, as a large high-pressure system is expected to block the optimal route to Galway, inevitably postponing the earliest ETA in Galway from Saturday to possibly as late as Tuesday of next week.

Such an outcome may result in a new, 24-hour speed sailing record, currently held by overall race leader Torben Grael on Ericsson 4.

Dozens of ice-reports for the leg have obliged organisers to set ice-gates to divert the fleet, but this added obstacle only serves to place the Atlantic close to par with the Southern Ocean for its demands. Galway may be near, but for the 77 sailors crossing the Atlantic, it remains a far-off land for now.