Mullingar and tourism - what's next

Joe Dolan, a new Storytelling Festival at Belvedere, and the Hill of Uisneach are key to promoting Destination Mullingar this year.

In fact, calls to have a dedicated Joe Dolan tourism trail as a key attractions were made during a presentation on tourism at last week’s meeting of Westmeath County Council.

“He is certainly Mullingar’s most famous son,” said Cllr Mick Dollard, who said the Joe Dolan statue in Market Square is the town’s most popular attraction.

“One of the main reasons why a lot of people come to Mullingar is Joe Dolan, to go out to his grave in Walshestown, and possibly end up in his pub afterwards. People come from all over the country and the UK, to see the old County Hall, to see where he played. Westmeath County Council in their wisdom named a bridge after him,” said Cllr Dollard.

“I can’t understand why Westmeath Tourism aren’t pushing the concept of Joe Dolan more than they actually are.”

In agreement was Cllr Ken Glynn, who said we should be selling Mullingar as the capital of the music industry, listing The Academic, The Blizzards and Niall Horan as evidence of that.

“We are continuously turning out stars on the national and international stage. The concept of a museum has been raised before, it would be another tourist attraction.”

Tourism officer Una Doris agreed, explaining that it has been highlighted as one of the key priorities for Destination Mullingar, as had a new storytelling project planned for Belvedere.

“Not just Joe Dolan and upcoming musicians, but Mullingar’s music venues – it’s what makes Mullingar stand apart from any other destination,” said Ms Doris. “From our research we’ve found a lot of other destinations don’t have night time activities – which Mullingar has in abundance,” she said. 

The County Tourism Group has been working hard on selling the county’s two main tourism brands, Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands, which covers Athlone, as well as Ireland’s Ancient East, which encompasses north Westmeath and Mullingar, as far as the Hill of Uisneach.

A lot of work has been done on Destination Mullingar since its launch in November last year, said Ms Doris, as well as on a new Westmeath tourism website – at visitwestmeath.ie.

It features key attractions and activities, itineraries and accommodation, and plenty of marketing content which Fáilte Ireland promotes. New brochures and a map guide have also been launched.

“We’ve attended number of exhibitions including the World Map conference, the Holiday World Show and the Irish Adventure Tourism conference, which gives us good exposure and it’s a good way to interact with the tour operators and the bigger tourism centres,” said Ms Doris.

“Social media, Instagram and Twitter have been live now for a number of months now, getting good reactions, gradually building over time – we had one post reach over 400,000 – successful so far.”

Other key priorities for 2019 include signage pointing out important historical and heritage sites.
Top of Cllr Tom Farrell’s tourism agenda was pushing the Hill of Uisneach and signs, while Cllr Shaw welcomed the new storytelling project. Cllr

Emily Wallace wondered what work was being done to promote the greenway, as did Cllr Glynn, who said Westmeath was in competition with Westport and Waterford.

Ms Doris conceded there was a lot more to be done on promoting the greenway.

“We’ve been told by Fáilte Ireland that it’s not scenic enough,” she said. “They’re looking for us to add more attractions and more amenities along the way – which we plan to do – and we’re working on how to enhance it all the time. 

“When it comes right in to Athlone town and across the Shannon, it will really enhance it,” she said.