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NEXT WEEK THE annual Fleadh Cheoil festival is set to take place in Sligo.
It is the second year the event has been held in the county and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the world’s largest traditional Irish music festival.
A lot of organisation and work goes into a bid to host the event, and not without good reason – the extra footfall is seriously lucrative for local businesses.
But just how big will the benefits be for Sligo this coming week?
How much is the event worth?
Public relations officer with Fleadh Cheoil Michéal Ó Donhnaill estimates that the event will bring somewhere between €40 million and €50 million into the town with somewhere in the region of 300,000 to 400,000 people visiting over the course of the week.
This is based on research carried out by Fáilte Ireland when Cavan held the event between 2010 and 2012.
Ó Donhnaill explains that local businesses are involved, “Right from the early application stage. That means the commitment is there, and when you are gifted the right to hold the Fleadh Cheoil, the proper arrangements can be put in place and you know you have the facilities to put on the event.”
One thing that Ó Donhnaill noted was the big volunteer effort that allows the festival to happen.
“Everything is done on a voluntary basis. We’d have a huge amount of volunteers working, organising the Fleadh Cheoil. When the actual event comes around, you’d have several hundred more. Around 1,500 people in total who get involved,” he said.
The Fleadh is probably the biggest volunteer run festival anywhere in the country… and compares easily with anything that’s run on a commercial basis.
Paul Keyes, the chief executive of the Sligo Chamber of Commerce, puts a slightly more conservative figure on the amount the festival might be worth, estimating a net of €30 million from 300,000 visitors over a period of 7 days.
The organisation that he is head of and businesses throughout the town are putting a priority on ensuring good service over the course of the week.
“What a lot of businesses have done in Sligo”, Keyes explains, “is that they have signed up to a charter called ‘In Tune with the Fleadh’. They sign up to provide excellence in quality, value and service to our visitors. Recognising the importance of a big welcome and that they will enjoy their stay in Sligo and that they will come back again.”
Who is it that the event benefits?
The benefits from next week’s event will be spread throughout the local economy, but will be a particular bonus for the hospitality sector.
“It is a boost not only for Sligo”, said manager of Strandhill Lodge and Suites Hotel, David McCoy, “but also I imagine it is as boost for Leitrim, Roscommon, Donegal and north Mayo.”
Despite being a fifteen minute drive from the city centre, his hotel is fully booked out for next week and it is estimated that there will be a 20% increase in business overall.
Michael (Tricky) Caheny, owner of Tricky’s McGarrigle, a music pub in the centre of Sligo and Caheny’s Bar, a family pub dating back to 1890, explains that as much the Fleadh Cheoil benefits Sligo, it is important for business owners to invest in the event.
“I do think there will be a big cash influx into the town, but it is important to make sure it gets dispersed around as many people as possible. While a good lot of money comes into the town it is nice to see it go out in extra gigs and extra people getting employed,” he said.
Long term benefits
A major factor for those who will be involved in the festival next week is the long-term benefits of the festival to the local area.
Far from being a one off, everyone involved sees it as an opportunity to showcase the town and drive up longer-term tourism.
“Sligo sells itself,” Paul Keyes explains, “It is way above the national average in terms of the amount of repeat visitors. Absolutely, one of the legacies of the Fleadh is the amount of people coming to Sligo for the first time in their lives – and they are already starting to come back.”
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There choice to get sent there….
@Paul: Is it a choice to have the neurological disorder ADHD, a condition that affects impulsivity, causes those affected to act first and think later (32%). Is it a choice to have a mental health problem (55%)? Is it a choice to have a learning disability (36%) or learning difficulty (22% i.e. an IQ below 70)? Is it a choice to be at risk of neglect or abuse (47%)? Is it a choice to be born into a background of poverty or criminality?
@David Jordan: all very well but the vast majority of people in the world diagnosed with these issues and have steered clear of the wrong side of the law. So by your reasoning does it mean that the other ones in there are just simply bad people or shall we draw up an excuse for each and everyone. If it were the case that their mental health problems/learning disabilities/learning difficulty reduced their mental age capacity or hampered it in a way they could not differentiate between right and wrong they tm would not be in a facility like Oberstown. Oberstown is for criminals under the age of 18. Would you be signing off the same hymn sheet if they had robbed your car or held a knife to your mother’s throat and took her pension?
@Paul: absolutely, just like it was your choice not to be educated. The word is spelled ‘Their’.
I’ll elaborate…. look at those vulnerable children over (there)’. (They’re) alone in (their) rooms without any parental guidance through no fault of their own.
3 versions of the same sounding word.
Seems your lack of education is not solely limited to poor spelling. Perhaps research what the potential effects of broken homes, abusive parents, alcohol related issues, lack of parental support etc have in young children.
Hope you receive the help you need (Night classes perhaps?), just as I hope these children receive the help they themselves need.
@David Jordan:
And just so we are clear ADHD can sometimes (not always) affect impulsivity. It’s more to do with an inability to maintain persistent attention to tasks etc along with hyperactivity, hence the name. It’s far too easy nowadays to throw out a few letters and dismiss people’s actions as a result.
@Paul: *their
@Paul: “Their”
@David Jordan: The most serious well known disorder that these kids suffer from is BOLD.
@David Jordan: oh and to your last line maybe we should start looking at that and that decisions should be taken brfore the birth of a child to determine whether prospective parents(s) have the required “where with all” to safely bring up a child.
Never ceases to amaze me that people can be so sympathetic to children in abusive and non-loving homes but as soon as those children reach an age of about 14 all that sympathy goes straight out the window.
Small children that don’t get the same start in life that others take for granted WILL grow up to be potentially criminals. They don’t just suddenly “learn” the right way to function in society if they’ve never been taught.
And yet there seems to be a distinct reticence by many to fund early intervention and parental assistance. There seems to be a feeling that the parents don’t deserve help with the added bonus of the child grows into an adult that “doesn’t deserve help”.
And so the wheel turns.
@Tricia Golden: Many of these teenagers come from criminal homes. Grandfather’s, Fathers, Brothers, Uncles and Cousins, many been have and are involved in criminal activities. For them crime is as natural as going to work is for you.
@Tricia Golden: The percentages are frightening. Travellers represent 23% of the inmates but are only 0.6% of the general population. This is a huge figure and it’s screaming at us to get this “Culture” removed with education and good role models. This way of life costs us taxpayers tens on millions a year but we are still not addressing the problem !
@Ser Barristan Selmy: Well done missing my point.
I am specifically pointing to early intervention, supplying good role models and providing advice and assistance to parents long before these children reach the stage where the penal system needs to “teach them”.
I will concede that “will” versus “potentially” but I suspect it doesn’t detract from my overall point beyond giving you something to focus on apart from my main argument.
@Richard Wright: Did I say that or is it that what you yourself are thinking?
@Richard Wright: Firstly you are assuming that I am Christian yet know nothing about me, secondly you are assuming I am writing anyone off instead of making a factual point. Anymore assumptions you would like to jump to?
@Ser, did you even read the article? No, at 14 if the “scrotes” as you call them, have NOT learned social norms. If they’re living with parents who couldn’t give a cr*p about them, where drinking or doing drugs, neglecting them, then of course they’re never going to learn what’s ok because they’ve never seen it. As for the penal system teaching them, you are out of your mind. None of this addresses the issues or fixes the problem. Does this mean we should have group hugs and candlelight vigils? No. But perhaps putting in better structures, early intervention and a social care system that works beyond 5pm on a Friday, May be places to start.
No, Ser, they don’t. If they’ve never been taught it, and shown it, they can’t pick it up by osmosis
@Richard Wright: A discussion between a mental health expert (West Cork Lad) and Mick Jordan,on this very topic..Maybe this will give you a better insight into Micks thoughts on these children…
http://www.thejournal.ie/special-care-unit-hiqa-2302413-Aug2015/#comments
@Ser Barristan Selmy: Read that article in the link that I just put up,as It might help to answer the question that you just asked of Jeannette…
Ser, early intervention and a well staffed, proper social services Dept that opens beyond 5pm on a Friday. As to knowing right from wrong and it’s full implications, we wouldn’t expect a child who was never spoken to, to be able to speak.
@Ser Barristan Selmy: My bad.I asked you to read the article.I should have said the comments section of it…
Think a free hug session is over due.
The poor darlings
Plenty of kids and adults with adhd successful in life and not robbing backsterds and burglars and car thief’s….. And I’ve no doubt the state did all it could for them by giving them free access to doctors medication councillors. Unlike the ones who pay for it
Where is Paul Murphy’s contribution on all of this ?
We’re in the process of creating our own home grown terrorist problem.
This chaos has to stop. Reopen St. Pats for god sake…..
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