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It has just been announced that more than 807,000 visitors attended the new Titanic centre in Belfast during its first year. The attraction, built at a cost £77 million, overlooks the slipways, where the legendary liner was launched, attracted tourists from some 128 countries worldwide in one year.
Meanwhile the total visitor figures to the 4 sites owned by the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin for 2011 were 1,096,027.
 The Dublin Kildare Street Museum houses “The Treasury – Celtic and Early Christian Ireland,” exhibition, a collection of masterpieces from Celtic and Early Christian Ireland, which contains the recently conserved Tipperary owned Faddan More Psalter & the Tipperary owned Derrynaflan Hoard.
These above named two items in this Dublin exhibition, should by now be sitting in the Exhibition Centre at The Source Arts Centre, complex, but alas, due to in fighting amongst local councillors, and helpless Co Councillors & TD’s same remains to the benefit of Dublin’s continuously rising economy.
This Dublin Museum now boasts, at the expense of employment in Thurles, that it has had the 2nd highest tourism figure ever, with an overall 10% increase on the previous year 2011. You do not believe me? Then please CLICK HERE folks.
Thurles – Imagine For Just One Moment
Let us all imagine, for just one moment, that if only one third ( 365,342 visitors ) of the National Museum of Ireland’s visitors arrived in Liberty Square, Thurles, in any one year period, the difference it would make to our rural economy, in relation to full-time & part-time employment. Imagine the increase in revenues that would be returned to this present sleepy government.
A Pinch Of Powdered Rhino Horn Anyone?
Rhino heads and horns worth €500,000 were ‘pinched,’ possibly by an Irish organized crime gang, from the National Museum of Ireland’s warehouse, in Swords, Co Dublin, late on Wednesday night last. The National Museum’s previous excuse, which usually stated that only it had the necessary security to protect our national heritage, has just evaporated. This also now begs the question, why were there any artefacts stored, not being made available for viewing by our visiting guests of the Irish Nation, especially during the year of “The Gathering.”?
In our submission to Minister Jimmy Deenihan some five months ago we stated:
“Finally, we would request the Minister (Jimmy Deenihan) to immediately order a full audit of the National Museum’s present artefacts, with special emphases to be placed on items currently not on display, e.g. Sheela-na-gigs, guns, swords etc, which would further benefit other tourist centres / museums etc. within the Irish mid-lands in particular & which would in turn further encourage / tease visitors to travel …”
It would appear that despite the existence of so many small wonderful museums, right throughout the heartland of Ireland, Dublin has decided that if history cannot be viewed by tourists in “The Pale,” Irish history cannot be viewed at all.
Where now are the Thurles chests, proudly displaying the powerful “Chains of High Office,” & those others claiming to be Community Leaders, when we need them?
Note: According to the Irish Examiner, dated yesterday, employment levels in firms supported by the IDA/Enterprise Ireland (EI) have decreased by more than 19,400, or 6%, to 281,965 in the past five years. Dublin and Cork accounted for three-quarters of all net job increases at IDA companies in 2012. At the same time, Tipperary, Kildare & Leitrim, experienced net losses, yet our County & Town remains silent.
 Recreational angling on the River Suir in Co Tipperary will change following a Bye-Law, sought by a majority of anglers, has been signed into law.
From April 12th, 2103, fishing for salmon and sea trout (over 40cm) on the River Suir, is prohibited where the use of worms, prawn, shrimp or any other crustacean or their artificial forms are used as bait and any fish hooks, other than single Barbless hooks up to and including May 11th, 2013.
From May 12th to September 30th 2013 the Bye-Law provides for a bag limit of 5 fish for the season, subject to a daily bag limit of 1 fish. Anglers must use a single Barbless hook once their daily or season bag limit has been reached. The exclusion on the use of worms, prawn, shrimp and any other crustacean as bait, will continue until the season ends.
Inland Fisheries Ireland would like to point out that this bye-law is applicable to the 2013 season only.
Best Brown Trout River in Europe
Angling for Salmon on the River Suir attracts many visiting anglers annually. It is hoped that this measure will ensure even better angling for the many local and visiting anglers that come to fish the Suir, which already this year has been rated the “Best Brown Trout River in Europe.”
The rule governing this new seasonal Bye-Law can be downloaded HERE.
 A shout of “hurrah,” deafened this country, coming from the Internet searching Press Reporters of Ireland today.
For according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), figures, published on-line this week, more than 30,000 extra visitors came to Ireland in the period December 2012 – February 2013.
These marvellous, encouraging new figures from the CSO could indicate that tourist numbers actually did grow over the period December 2012 – February 2013, as the Government’s ‘The Gathering,‘ initiative got under-way.
Per the CSO, in the period December 2012 – February 2013, the total number of trips undertaken to Ireland increased by 2.6% to 1,176,100 – an overall increase of 30,200 bodies, compared to the same period twelve months earlier.
The present Government is aiming to attract 325,000 more tourists to Ireland this year. None, I hasten to add, have materialized here in Thurles, or indeed North Tipperary, to any great degree this year to date.
Can these CSO figures be accurately proven or should they be categorised under a heading, which is attributed to the 19th-century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881,) by the American author and humorist Mark Twain, the former who supposedly stated “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Emigration from Ireland in the twelve months to April 2012 is estimated to have increased to 87,100 from 80,600 in the year to April 2011. Add another 10,000 at least to these figures to keep us in line with 2013 figures not yet presented.
The question must now be asked, purely to curb the use of statistics being used to bolster weak arguments; “How many of these so called ‘extra visitors,‘ were simply these same former, forced emigrants returning from abroad for a brief spell, to be with their families for the Christmas season, before returning back into exile, where paid work for them is more easily available?”
Forgive the humour, but in this country “The problem with unemployment is that it’s not working.”
Are the Irish people & hence the world, being drip-fed with the fertiliser normally attributed to the nourishing of the Mushroom Crop, grown in the darkness of a producers poly-tunnel ?
As my once wise old granny used to say, after I had retrieved the hurling ball, before she discovered the smashed window pane “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” In other words, as in a mathematical formula: “Travel,” implies “Visitor,” but “Visitor,” is false, therefore “Travel,” is false.
Anyone care to discuss?
 Queen Elizabeth visited the Rock of Cashel in May 2011. The Office of Public Works (OPW) are pleased to announce that on the first Wednesday of every month, during 2013, all OPW managed Heritage Sites in Tipperary will continue to offer FREE ADMISSION to individuals wishing to visit these sites for the duration of their particular opening season.
The list of participating sites in Tipperary are: Cahir Castle, Rock of Cashel, Roscrea Heritage (Castle and Damer House) and the Blackmills, and the Swiss Cottage.
Details on these and other national Irish tourist attractions can be found by simply clicking HERE
Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis with normal conditions of admission applying at all sites. Visitors may experience delays at some of the busier sites and are therefore advised to arrive early. If allocated a time, visitors are asked to arrive promptly for the start of their tour. There is no guarantee that visitors who miss their allocated tour-slot can be accommodated at a later time. Children must be supervised at all times and access to some sites will be by guided tour only. Visitors are also warned that opening times can change at short notice.
So please, old age pensioners & those enjoying free travel, do take advantage and use this opportunity “To see old Ireland free.”
Photo courtesy G.Willoughby.
 Part of Tipperary’s Lough Derg shore line. Dublin City Council’s plans, to remove over 500 million litres of water on a daily basis from Lough Derg here in North Tipperary could leave Ireland open to an EU legal challenge. This follows a recent European Court of Justice ruling against Greece, Mayo Fine Gael MEP Mr Jim Higgins has warned.
To remind Tipperary readers, this proposed plan is to extract water from Lough Derg, the largest of 3 lakes on the River Shannon, at the rate of 350 – 500 million litres per day, via a reservoir and treatment plant, to be possibly situated near Portarlington.
The River Shannon Protection Alliance (SPA) claim that Dublin City Council’s highly controversial plan to pipe this water from Lough Derg, to address leaking Victorian pipes in Dublin by 2020, is in breach of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD).
Mr Higgins revealed earlier this month that the European Court of Justice has already ruled that Greece was in breach of European Union law when it failed to protect the waters of Lake Koroneia, latter’s water which were illegally abstracted for irrigation purposes.
The SPA & Mr Higgins are opposed to the Dublin City Council’s proposal on the grounds of a possible negative environmental impact that any such abstraction might have on the lake. The SPA are now seriously considering lodging an objection against this plan, to the European Union Petitions’ Committee, which could pose further difficulties with regard to Dublin City Council’s future plans.
Photo courtesy G.Willoughby.
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The Dublin Kildare Street Museum houses “The Treasury – Celtic and Early Christian Ireland,” exhibition, a collection of masterpieces from Celtic and Early Christian Ireland, which contains the recently conserved Tipperary owned Faddan More Psalter & the Tipperary owned Derrynaflan Hoard.
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