As Ireland gears up for The Gathering Ireland 2013, Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins is calling on Americans to visit the “Old Country” and celebrate their Irish roots.
Recently the President spoke to travel blog, Gadling, about his time spent in the US, his affinity to the country, and Ireland’s rich resource, its Diaspora.
The site forthrightly asked the President, “Why should Americans visit Ireland now?”
His response was to the point and went directly to what the consumer / traveler is truly concerned about - value for money, finding their roots, and that world famous Irish charm.
Higgins said, “They would find Ireland a great value right now. In my memory, I've never seen such values on hotels and guesthouses and so forth as there is right now. It's also great value because part of the excesses of the Celtic Tiger years has been blown away.”
With over 42 million Irish Americans it’s not surprising that Ireland has become a major destination for genealogy vacations.
He said, “By now the original census materials from the 19th and 20th centuries have been put up online and digitized. So it'll be possible for people to trace where their ancestors came from - even on a brief holiday.”
Finally he touched on the famous Irish welcome from the country of Cead Mille Failte (“A hundred thousand welcomes”).
Ireland’s new president ended by saying, “There's incredible warmth towards people who come from the United States to experience Ireland. And it's a beautiful country to visit and the people have time to stop and talk to you. With the Celtic Tiger, there was a certain emphasis on getting things done, but now we've gone back to the best of ourselves and I very much welcome that.”
27 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.Frosty38 | Aug 29, 2012, 04:58 PM EDT
Do you think this a ploy for Ireland Tourism
seamus60 | Aug 18, 2012, 05:18 PM EDT
You are very angry Paddy. They actually forced you to emigrate and then stripped you of a vote. Who are they ?
IrelandNorth | Aug 17, 2012, 08:11 AM EDT
Murph46! As Dan said. Train from Belfast Central to Dublin Connolly (ie N-S). Then LUAS tram (every 7 mins peak) from Connolly Stn over to Heuston Stn for regular Galway or Wesport trains to Tullamore or Clara, Co Offally (ie E-W). Check IrishRail website. Go easy on the moonshine/hootch!
DanOLoingsigh | Aug 17, 2012, 07:17 AM EDT
Murph - you can get a train from Belfast to Dublin, arrives Connolly station, then u would need to cross to Heuston station to get train to Tullamore...or Clara in Offaly...in London, 2 pubs for you - Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, v old, amazing place, off Fleet St (tube is Temple), and Olde King's Head, a few blocks back from London Bridge station - does good pub food - both have decent prices for London - if yr in West London, try Elepant n Castle, behind Kensington High St...
angrypaddy | Aug 15, 2012, 11:26 PM EDT
first they force you to immigrate strip you of your voting rights as you leave told every one to F##K Off during the Celtic Tiger now that they are broke beg you to come back so they can rip you off one more time " O never oh never oh never again" If i live to be a hundred or a hundred and ten
Pittsburghkid | Aug 15, 2012, 04:14 PM EDT
The EU policy for open immigration will mean that the Irish will have to migrate, and other nationalities will take their place making Ireland more like America. So why go to Ireland to see an Irish version of America?
Murph46 | Aug 15, 2012, 01:43 PM EDT
JB I guess I'll be dooin the Dew!
JBRAFTREE | Aug 15, 2012, 01:36 PM EDT
Murph, don't know about Belfast to Offaly. Sorry. Tullamore Dew is an excellent whiskey, as most all Irish whiskeys are.
Murph46 | Aug 15, 2012, 12:20 PM EDT
DanOloingsigh-Alas we will be in London 9-11 and in Ireland almost a month later.I do love my whiskey though,thanks for the shout out.JBRAFTREE,do they have a train from Belfast to Offaly?We will be coming from the North after having ferried over.
ancavker | Aug 15, 2012, 10:18 AM EDT
Boston: If Galway wants to build a statue to Che, who cares that is their own business. However I am just not sure who and why they are building it. It won't appeal to most American tourists, and if they are assuming it will appeal to tourists from South America I don't see it. I would assume that overwhelmingly the tourists from South America would be those of means and wealth. I highly doubt they will be visiting the Che statue, as Che hated them, and vice/versa. It sounds like a tourist gimmick, but again it is their own business.
IrelandNorth | Aug 15, 2012, 07:55 AM EDT
Military service is always a very honourable thing to do, being selfless and civically minded. Many centre-left/Christian socialist Irish appreciate the distinction between Americans, and the foreign policy of any particular United States (US) Government. Real friends tell us what we need to hear. Sycophants tell us what they know our egos want to hear, thereby confirming us in our delusions. In Úachtarán Ó h'Úigín's acceptance speech, he referred to building "... a new republic - a real republic, on our shared Island - our shared Ireland." In the same Saint Patrick's Hall of Dublin Castle where HM EIIR in Her Queen's Speech spoke 'as Gaeilge', and talked of "... a partnership of equals, and of bowing to history but not being bowed by it" at the Garden of Rembrance and War Memorial Grounds at Islandbridge. Scrips which seem consonant. A second Ulster/Northern Ireland President of Ireland would have been powerfully symbolic. Alas, the cabbage patch republicans of the 26 county petty fiefdom feared their Commonwealth project might be impeded. And Higgin's was their compromise candidate. He's the best there is in the political establishment. And McGuinness has pledged his allegience. Irish-Americans are free to come anytime the choose to do so. Such is their genealogical prerogative. They don't need anyones permission to do so.
tommymccarthy | Aug 15, 2012, 07:27 AM EDT
I am taken my good lady to County Waterford to look for my people( McCarthy )my grandfather named John =Katherine that is all they were born there
DanOLoingsigh | Aug 15, 2012, 03:38 AM EDT
Murph - If you're here 7 Sept, Locke's distillery Kilbeggan, you can take the whiskey tasting tour, followed by Kilbeggan races for early evening meeting, followed by Brewery Tap, Tullamore for music (any Monday for the distilery and Tap)...you'll think you've died and gone to heaven :)
bostonculchie | Aug 14, 2012, 06:25 PM EDT
Ah, El Presidente socialiste Higgins, will you be inviting us to the unveiling of the Che Guevara statue, near JFK's in Galway city and will be there be a USA flag burning along with the ceremony? I hear your good at both unveiling and flag burning.
JBRAFTREE | Aug 14, 2012, 05:32 PM EDT
Murph, take the train from Dublin to Offaly. Great scenery and outstanding craic on the train. Seanmor, SemperFi!! Same times in.
Murph46 | Aug 14, 2012, 04:02 PM EDT
I am coming to Belfast ,and on to my ancestral birthplace of Co.Offaly in Sept-Oct this year.I'm excited,any suggestions?
Seanmor | Aug 14, 2012, 03:26 PM EDT
I agree. Ireland (including al of its territory) is a beautiful countr, but it is MUCH MORE expensive that Michael Higgins would have us believe. When he mentions that there are 42 million Americans of Irish descent, apparently he includes those whose Irish ancestors came from what is now the 'Ulster' state, the part of Ireland which Higgins and his fellow Southen politicians consider British territory. The first time I filled out a census form in the U.S. was when I was at the Marine Corps basic training camp in Parris Island. The form required non-citizens to be precise about their county of origin and to distinguish between East and West Germany, also Northrn and Southrn Ireland. I simply wrote IRELAND in the space - meaning the whole Irish nation and all its parts. Would Michal Higgins have approved of this? Having served in the U.s. military in the 60s -the Vietnam War Era- I probably wouldn't receive a Céad Mil Fáilte from the Higgins crowd. Agus rud égin eile. Is maith liom an Ghaeilge a labhairt, teanga nach bhfuil meas mo mhadra ag Higgins uirthi.
TayandCake | Aug 14, 2012, 03:04 PM EDT
Just stay away from Dublin, its just another city
JBRAFTREE | Aug 14, 2012, 01:56 PM EDT
Last May, I visited Ballinasloe, set up my home base in Creagh, to look for my relatives in Ahascragh. I was told I couldn't do it a week, I did it in two days. Good info on a very old obit in my posession, met with the people I was looking for, with the help of a local taxi driver. Unfortunately my probable relatives gave me a bogus e-mail address, and I didn't think to get their ph# or address figuring the e-mail would be enough. I spent 5 Large on that trip, and I went alone, but I'm amazed they mistreated me as they did not giving me info to keep in touch.
handsome68 | Aug 14, 2012, 12:50 PM EDT
Was in Ireland last August for the third time, both parents having come from Leitrim. Both general bus tour and specific meeting with cousins, very good indeed. That was last year. This time, come October, God willing, I'll fly to Spain, that country for the first time. A (German) diplomat friend has a home in Madrid, and both of us want to do the camino de Santiago de Compostela, the St. James pilgrimage road featured in the movie The Way. Spain is surely hurting financially, as well, so I factored that into my equation to go there.
Ms.Gail | Aug 14, 2012, 12:14 PM EDT
I would very much love to visit Ireland again. But airfares for our family would take 5 months income for me.
Helen Ferone | Aug 14, 2012, 11:55 AM EDT
Everyone should visit Ireland at least once in their lifetime. I planned on going one time, and fell in love with the country and people. No, I didn't go to Dublin, but chose to land in Shannon, and venture from there. I rented a cottage each time I went (12 times), and journeyed from there. I found Connemara to be isolated and beautful with the farmers still tilling their land, and you can't go there without visiting the beautiful Kylemore Abbey. I've also stayed in Doolin, and County Kerry, and loved them all. My daughter and I had a flat tire in an isolated area in Co. Galway, walked to the nearest house, knocked on the door, and a wonderful older man answered. He called the nearest garage, and a man called Padraig came out with another tire, fixed it, and charged 10 euros. Are you kidding me? The people are wonderful, and the country is just beautiful. Now I have to just sit and plan what other part of Ireland will I go to, but I can just bet I'll head back to Connemara, and Walsh' bakery in Clifden.
Helen Ferone | Aug 14, 2012, 10:52 AM EDT
Just maybe we are tired of getting our Culture or Constitution , our Bill of rights trashed everyday by this web site. Why should we spend our hard earned dollars on those who ridicule us for who we are and what we believe ? We will spend our money elsewhere thank you perhaps Royal Caribbean while sunning ourselves in the Bahamas is stead of looking at a statute of Che Guevara in Galway on a rainy day
lokionline | Aug 14, 2012, 10:30 AM EDT
Ummm Irish Central's posting issues strike again... The comment below timed 10.03am was not me! I know I am a plastic paddy :)
lokionline | Aug 14, 2012, 10:24 AM EDT
As a first generation immigrant, I think it would be a good idea for many of the second, third... etc. generation Irish Americans who have adopted an overly individualistic philosophy, which they bray about in this forum, to visit Ireland and ask the folks there what they think of tax cuts for the wealthy while cuts to social programs are made. They will find they have strayed far from their roots.
lokionline | Aug 14, 2012, 10:03 AM EDT
Maybe we are tired of being called "plastic paddy's" and the like and being severely corrected when we call ourselves Irish and we are told we are Yanks not Irish.
TisEyerish | Aug 14, 2012, 09:45 AM EDT
Mother Ireland calls all of her children back, no matter how far removed we are from our ancestors who emigrated. As for me, I've been privileged to visit twice. My last visit was in May of 2011...I lot my job and was forced into early retirement when I couldn't find another. My 401(k) was severely decimated by the bank disaster here in the US. The money left in it would have done little good long-term, so I took it all and blew it in Ireland. I am now filled with 12 days of beautiful memories and do not regret my decision for one moment.