Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 15 February 2024
16. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media if she will outline the marketing strategy employed by Tourism Ireland to promote Brigid 1500 abroad; whether it was deemed to be successful; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6366/24]
Amharc ar fhreagraCould the Minister outline the marketing strategy employed by Tourism Ireland to promote Brigid 1500 abroad, whether it was deemed to be successful, and will she make a statement on the matter? If I talk of my home town of Dundalk and obviously Faughart, we had an excellent festival of lights that was run by Dundalk Bids, Louth County Council and many others. It and other events that I attended in Faughart were really successful but we probably could have done more. I would like to get the Minister's view on that.
The year 2024 marks 1,500 years since the death of St. Brigid, one of Ireland's three patron saints, who is traditionally commemorated each year on Lá 'le Bríde on 1 February. Since 2018, Tourism Ireland has supported Irish embassies and consulates across the world in marking St. Brigid’s Day by celebrating the creativity of women through a broad programme of events. The funding I secured in budget 2024 will allow Tourism Ireland to develop new marketing opportunities, such as St. Brigid’s Day, which help to extend the tourism season and encourage visitors to explore the less-visited parts of Ireland.
This year, for the first time ever, Tourism Ireland rolled out a new campaign to leverage St. Brigid’s Day around the world. This campaign, which will run for the spring period, aims to raise awareness of the island of Ireland as a great spring holiday destination. The saint’s feast day brings together Ireland's Christian tradition as well as reaching back to the ancient Celtic goddess, Brigid or Bríd, and with the ancient festival of Imbolc, a traditional Celtic festival that marked the beginning of spring.
Tourism Ireland’s new St. Brigid’s campaign involves a new video highlighting the Brigid 1500 festival in Kildare, which includes an interview with the founder of Brigid 1500 who discusses St. Brigid's legacy, the significance of Imbolc and the start of spring in Ireland; three short videos featuring female artists from the world of music, art and storytelling, which showcase some of our wonderful female talent against a backdrop of green, springtime Ireland; and new content bringing spring in Ireland to life, created by six popular female travel content creators from around the island of Ireland. These videos will be shared by Tourism Ireland with its millions of followers on social media throughout the spring period.
Louth, home of the birthplace of the saint, is a very significant part of the story of St. Brigid. I grew up with that not too far from Faughart. That Faughart was not too far from us was something that we were very proud of in County Monaghan. I know that the Deputy has that pride too.
This year's impressive Brigid 1500 ten-day festival organised by Louth County Council, which included elements supported by my Department's Creative Ireland programme, provides further opportunities for inclusion in any future marketing campaigns and promotions of St. Brigid, whether at home or abroad, by tourism agencies. St. Brigid’s Day provides a unique opportunity to acknowledge the critical role that women have played in Irish history, culture and society, and I believe that events celebrating Irish women will continue to flourish around this day over the years to come.
We can all see the successes that there were when I talk about Brigid 1500, whether it was in County Kildare or whether I am talking about County Louth and, as I said, Dundalk and Faughart. Tourism Ireland needs to play a far bigger role with regard to more joined-up thinking. None of us wants to get into a spat, and we have seen that from time to time. People in the general north Louth area got really annoyed when they heard RTÉ talking about Kildare being the birthplace of St. Brigid, or at least that is what they believe they heard anyway. We need to deal with that. Tourism Ireland needs to make sure that it is hands-on.
We have a really good starting point. There was spectacular work done by Dundalk Bids and by Martin McElligott and his team and we need to build on it. On some level, we are probably getting sometimes even greater international notice than domestic notice, outside of the people of Dundalk and north County Louth, who are very happy. Even those who would have said they were not quite sure on this said it was an absolutely fabulous event that took a huge amount of people over that period into the town of Dundalk. As I said, it was both spectacular and enjoyable, and very positive. Sometimes we do not have a huge level of positivity out there so it is something we can build on.
I thank the Deputy. In Louth - home of the birthplace of St. Brigid - a remarkable project unfolded to commemorate the 1,500th anniversary of this beloved Irish saint. I congratulate Louth County Council on its Brigid 1500 festival that really captured the imagination of all those who attended, especially the large "northern lights" show that attracted an estimated 48,000 visitors in just a few days. Along with a large-scale street and theatre performance, on a smaller scale but equally as important, students from St. Brigid's School in Dundalk with support from my Department designed a life-sized cloak made from copper foil circles paying homage to the enduring legacy of St. Brigid, and her deep connection to the town of Faughart. The choice of copper is significant, as it symbolises St. Brigid's association with the metalwork trade, making her the patroness of blacksmiths.
As part of the development of its new campaign to leverage St. Brigid's Day around the world, Tourism Ireland engaged with Louth County Council to discuss its festival work programme. While logistically it was not feasible to incorporate content in the 2024 campaign, consideration can certainly be given in any future campaigns to include St. Brigid's connection with Louth.
It is obviously disappointing that there was not greater involvement with regard to this content and the festival that was to be operated in Dundalk and north County Louth. Into the future, I would request that the Minister would take a hands-on approach to ensure engagement with Tourism Ireland. Other elected representatives from the area and I will follow through on this. We need to make sure that we do it together, and that we sell the entirety with regard to north County Louth, Dundalk, Faughart and Kildare. We should sell it on an international basis and equally ensure that there is a sufficient amount of funding to address this, particularly when we are talking about Government sources. We need to make sure that we do it in a proper, concerted way, that we get the best bang for our buck across the board, and that we do it with the utmost fairness and from the point of view of making sure we promote the St. Brigid's festival as best we can. That means that we do justice to both Louth and Kildare.
It is certainly not the case that Kildare should be versus Louth or Louth versus Kildare. Both Kildare and Louth are the two key locations in the story of St. Brigid. By taking them together, there is potential for opening really exciting tourism possibilities for Ireland's Ancient East. I am glad that Deputy Ó Murchú is speaking about that here. He is talking about the potential of the two counties, rather than pitting one against the other. The two tourism agencies are, of course, open to engaging with Louth County Council on future development opportunities regarding St. Brigid, and as I said, there is huge potential for Louth, Kildare, the entire Ireland's Ancient East region and the island.
I thank the Minister. We will go back to Question No. 7 from Deputy Connolly.
