Australian breakfast TV watchers will this week get a glimpse of some of Ireland’s key tourist attractions, including outlaw Ned Kelly’s Tipperary connection.
Emma Freeman
‘Today’s,’ weather presenter the lovely Emma Freeman will entice Aussie holidaymakers to come to visit Ireland, as she delivers live weather bulletins from various locations across Ireland over a three day period.
The breakfast TV show ‘Today,’ which appears on channel 9, is broadcasting live from Ireland this week to over 1 million people across Australia. The broadcasts will begin each evening at 9.00pm, which is 6.00am in Australia the following day, and will go out live during this top-rated show.
Ms Freeman also took the opportunity this evening to highlight County Tipperary, broadcasting from McCarthy’s Bar, in Fethard, Co Tipperary, where she explored the horse-racing traditions of this beautiful part of Ireland and looked at Tipperary outlaw Ned Kelly’s connection with the county.
Emma was contacted by the new “Hidden Tipperary” Thurles tourism group, with a view to her visiting Thurles, but alas the broadcasts will finish in Dublin tomorrow, where she will show off some of the city’s main tourist attractions to Australian viewers, broadcasting live from Trinity College.
Regrettably Australian viewers will not see the hidden primary sources relating to the 19th century leader Thomas Francis Meagher, transported for life to Van Diemen’s Land in Australia, or indeed the Borrisoleigh home of the parents of Ben Chifley, their 16th Prime Minister of Australia, to name just two connections.
But then of course no one is marketing North Tipperary as a tourist attraction. It’s such a shame really.
As we live on the Gold Coast Qld, Australia, I can tell you this reporting by ‘Today’ from Ireland especially from my home town Fethard was a complete let down. We here in Australia saw mostly what was going on with the Aussie weather. We saw two pictures of McCarthys hotel and that was it and a shot of Coolmore stud, certainly nothing of the beautiful sites we expected to see around the south of Ireland. Joe Kenny in Fethard had better pictures on his current news page.The Travel agents in Australia especially here on the Gold Coast never seem to advertise the beautiful sites around the South of Ireland. I asked one last week to find out for me if you can catch a train from Dublin airport to Thurles. His reply to me was where is Thurles!! Well I gave him a lesson on Thurles and Two Mile Borris where all my family the Ryan’s come from and I also said the travel agents should learn all about Two Mile Borris as there will be a wonderful Casino built there. Emma Freeman is a weekend weather person here and we can never understand what she is saying she speaks so fast and we have been in Australia for several years.’Thurles Tourism Group’ will have to do a lot more we never heard of them and who better than expats like us to help to promote them.Get on to Ed Donnelly to put some of this information about Thurles on his site. I know a lot of Irish like ourselfs log on to his site daily. Joe Kenny is a great source of information a lot of Irish here know him and he is putting Fethard on the map.The travel agents here advertised in our local paper they were offering a group trip to Ireland when I rang them to inquire what part of the South were they going to. Once again the same old destination ‘Dublin-Galway’ they seem to know only those two places. We will do our best to promote Thurles goodness knows we get asked often enough about Ireland. I am sure by now Fethard Medival festival is a must for most travellers planning a trip to Ireland.
Good Luck.
Katie.
Hi Katie,
Nice to hear from you. As you are possibly aware, from visiting our site we are in complete agreement with your statement. People are being invited by Bord Failte and Shannon Development to visit the gateways to Ireland only. Over €1.5 million has been handed to Waterford for the Tall Ships event this week, while Tipperary has been refused all funding for long term promotion. Midland Ireland is being totally ignored – Thurles and surrounding countryside has a Tourism marketing group made up of so called public representatives, who waste large sums of money and achieve absolutely nothing.
However we are beginning to fight back. See new site http://www.hiddentipperary.com/. While all funding has been refused for this project, it will slowly move forward thanks to a group of professionals who will give of their expertise free gratis.
Thurles Marketing group, a committee established to promote and market Thurles as a business, tourism, and industry destination has decided to formally disband. The Group which was made up of members representing Shannon Development, IDA, North Tipperary County Council, Thurles Town Council, Tipperary Institute, North Tipperary Enterprise Board, Leader and Thurles Chamber of Commerce has been in existence for a number of years and sought to promote Thurles both at home and abroad.
Thurles Marketing Group in disbanding claim that in recent times it had became obvious to their membership that the organisation had failed in identifying real objectives and therefore a decision had been taken to suspend all future activities.
Taking our current economic climate into consideration, this news now comes as a severe blow to our town, particularly at a time when we should be marketing this area even more aggressively and promoting what it has to offer in terms of tourism, business, commercial and industrial potential. While Thurles businesses respect the decision of this Marketing Group to disband, questions must now be answered regarding their sudden decision to ‘jump ship.’ Those members involved, namely Shannon Development, IDA Ireland, North Tipperary County Council, Thurles Town Council, Tipperary Institute, North Tipperary Enterprise Board, Leader and Thurles Chamber of Commerce, who have used up vast quantities of tax payers money in their marketing efforts over the years, owe an explanation as to why this decision was taken without warning.
Do keep pushing our wares in Australia – God knows Shannon Development and Bord Failte have failed miserably.
I would be intested to know more about the home of Ben Chifleys parents. His mother smart Anne came from Enniskullen.
Do it would be Patrick Chifley and his first wife (who died)
Are there any website photos of the house?
Thank you
Jane
Jane: There is plenty of information about Ben Chifley on the site: Australia’s Prime Ministers but nothing about his parents. I will try the ‘ National Archives of Australia.’ and get back to you. We have the State of the Art library just opened in our area. The best one in Australia I have been told so that might be a start. We had an invite to the opening. As usual all the top brass were there. Oh well that will be the last time we will see them for the year. Never can get hold of these people when you need them. I will pop in there this week. John borrowed 2 Irish movies from there and I gathered the clan over for viewing. So we started off with Bloody Sunday “Amazing film” I had seen it before but a lot had not. So we broke for a coffee and then watched “In the name of the Father” I always love Daniel Day-Lewis in these type of movies. It was brilliant along with been very sad. Plenty of tears from the clan so out came the Irish coffee and bickies and plenty of discussion about the film. So that was our Sunday afternoon. Hope Jane things are going well for your special day.
Katie.
Thanks Katie I know his mother was Mary Anne Corrigan and father Patrick Chifley but what intrigues me is the house because it may have been his fathers or grandfathers. I haven,’ seen bloody Sunday but have watched the U2 concert at the Castle where they went through all the names. I must watch the film now you’ve told me.