Hidden Heartlands examined at Goldsmith Festival

The River Shannon and the greenways and blueways of Westmeath, Roscommon, Offaly and Longford were highly praised and promoted during the recent Oliver Goldsmith Festival in Ballymahon.

The gathering heard a lecture about the Hidden Heartlands and a tourism masterplan for the River Shannon, which was produced by Waterways Ireland and Failte Ireland. The plan is to enhance and unlock the tourism potential of the region of the Shannon, from Cavan to Limerick.

Fiona Dunne from Mullingar and of Failte Ireland, recently joined ‘Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands’ as a manager and had previously worked in tourism by promoting Ireland across the world.

“I saw Hidden Heartlands and was passionate about it and its great plans for the future,” she said. “As someone who came back to Ireland after being abroad, I thought of the essence of the plan and I thought of Goldsmith and my assignment and I tried to see how Goldsmith would see the Hidden Heartlands brand. It captures an idea like none other of nature, space and at the same time, real community above all and authentic experiences.”

She talked of the Hidden Heartlands being beyond Goldsmith country and going through Ireland’s centre tracking the Shannon, encompassing Westmeath, Roscommon, Offaly and Longford.

“The Shannon forms a spine right through the region and a boat trip gives a compelling sense of Ireland, even experienced by the Vikings a millennium ago, as they raided the routes,” she said. “It stretches across the landscape and forms the arms of the heartland which grabs hold of the visitor. The terrains and the peatland which criss-cross the region, form the heart.”

She said that she believes this is an area, “whose time has come,” and it’s where you can see nature at its most unique, and can experience the beauty of “this special landscape”, and said that at the heart of the landscape is community.

“In the Hidden Heartlands, there is the highest number of community-run organisations in Ireland and the vision for the future of the heartlands is to become one of Europe’s leading tourist destinations,” said Fiona Dunne. “When we are marketing it, we will try and show the places where visitors can reconnect with nature. We will never move with the pace of Dublin, and I actually hope we don’t.”

She said the Hidden Heartlands of the midlands is of course not all wilderness, but with its nature offerings and greenways it’s a beautiful place to bring families.

She also spoke about the peatlands and climate change and said there are challenges in the region.

“Goldsmith would have found it interesting and his observations were contemporary. He was interested in the plight of those less fortunate, and he would have been interested because of the stories of those who make their livelihoods on the bogs,” said Fiona Dunne.

During the question and answer session, Dr. David Fleming, Department of History at University of Limerick who has been involved in an earlier Goldsmith weekend lecture asked the Hidden Heartlands panel about Clonmacnoise.

“Clonmacnoise is a wonderful monastic settlement right in the middle of your spine, where tourists come and want to do a lot of things,” he said.

He asked if Failte Ireland and Waterways Ireland have a role to play in getting Clonmacnoise World Heritage site status.

Fiona Dunne said that UNESCO status would take a long time to achieve and that there are many other sites looking for designation, but Failte Ireland would have experts who work and would be involved in the administrative process of providing letters of support.

“Anything that would get Irish sites on the UNESCO register always is a positive thing, and with Clonmacnoise there are discussions how to process bringing more visitors to the area and serving what is there already,” she said.

Cllr. Tom Farrell of Westmeath County Council attended the Hidden Heartlands talk and found it interesting because he is originally from Goldsmith Country.

“I lived in Goldsmith Country in Lissoy, across from the hawthorn bush, which was down at the cross where you go to Tully,” he said. “The Goldsmith festival has been running for many years and they’ve a fantastic committee. It was great to listen about the Hidden Heartlands, which was officially launched earlier this year and it’s about time that we in Westmeath and Longford are under the same banner.”

Cllr Farrell said it was interesting to think of Goldsmith and the things he saw being relevant today, like walkways, greenways and canals.