IrishCentral poll shows huge demand for Irish tourism, education, among U.S. Irish

My wife and I have visited Ireland for the past 8 years. We love the beautiful golf courses, the pubs with live Irish music, the spectacular scenery, but most of all, the wonderful, friendly Irish people. We have so many fine experiences interacting with people that we have met in Ireland, some of whom we continue to email with. We tell all of our friends that Ireland is a great place to visit.

toscany: I am very familiar with the Savannah Parade. It has as much in common with Irish heritage and culture as does the Dublin parade. Not much, in other words, though the weather on 3/17 is usually prettier in Savannah.

Yes, the Irish people have done a fine job preserving the Island up until now. Don't let the industrial developers turn it into another parking lot. The Emerald Isle needs to stay green, and full of ancient monuments and castles. There's nowhere else like it.

We need to end the rip off culture, and take care of our heritage. How could we let Bertie Ahern put a motorway through Tara? It's the one spot Americans could be sure that at least one member of their extended family stood at the Monster March in 1843.... still it can be re-route with the Lenister Oribital if sanity ever returns..

I would also agree that the Car rental issue needs to be addressed and regulated more strictly. Renting a car in Ireland is akin to playing Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun. The outcome is never pretty. There needs to be an across-the-board restructuring. The worst part of helping any of my clients with their Ireland itineraries is teh Car rental. Not only do teh prices fluctuate wildly between companies, They also vary within a particular company depending on the day, hour and, sometimes, minute. Add to the frustration of the initial rental the extra fees that are tagged on once you arrive, jet-lagged, and you have a serious muddle that is beyond comprhension. I, myself, have prepaid for my rental, been told that no extra monies would be charged upon pick-up, guaranteed the same when I picked up my vehicle only to receive a credit card statement a month after my return with an amount charged equal to what I had already paid. Investigation revealed that these were local fees and taxes with nothing else forthcoming. The rental company's response, when told that their agent had confirmed that here would be no extra charges above what I had paid, was "The agent misspoke and the charges will stand".

We don't appreciate what a great little country we have til we're away for a while and i learnt that years ago.We come back with a different attitude.

I am American born whose grandparents were Irish born. Whenever I go to Ireland, its been several times now, I feel like I am home. An Irish person once asked me why come there and I simply answered there was no where else I wanted to go. I'd like to see the rest of the world, but Ireland comes first. I live in a part of Florida that does not have a high Irish community. Still there are Irish pubs, Irish stores, and an Irish/American Club.

This is all very true, and I love Ireland. It is my Anam Bhaile, my soul's home. However, I would visit a lot more often if you could get control of your rental car industry. It's ridiculously complex to figure out the rules that each company has. Regulation of this industry would go far in the Irish-American community of travelers.

Ha! Savannah, Georgia USA, has the 2nd largest Saint Patrick's Day Parade in America! The local population of Savannah would be scorned, ifthey knew of O'Dowd's survey...Most of the South, in America, was settled by Irish, Scottish, and Scotch-Irish immigrants.

I am surprised there was so little response to the survey--2400 out of thousands of Irish Americans is a small number. However, if Ireland returns to the Irish currency-(which I think it should)- many more of us will return to Ireland for vacations , or even to live there.

Mr. O'Dowd needs to come to Texas and do some marketing here and I think he would be pleasantly surprised. Irish organizations can be found in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Irish enclaves can be found among Celtic groups in Amarillo, Lubbock, Austin, Corpus Christi and McAllen. I doubt if he were aware of that.