Shine Project
Last Updated: 01 Oct 2009
Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland has decided to launch a new project to re-invigorate our country and its attractive features. Ireland has always been known as the island of welcomes and the Shine Project will re-invogorate and re-develop our attractiveness. Attached is a speech delivered by the President of Athy Chamber at the launch of the Shine Project, which is being developed with Athy as the project town.
An Cathoirleach, Ladies and Gentleman,
In or about the second century, Athy was founded at a crossing point on the Barrow river, when Ae son of Dearghail, was slain in a battle between the men of Munster and the men of Leinster, today we find ourselves at another crossing point. Within the past 2 / 3 years many developers promised hundreds of million of euros in investment for various commercial projects with the resultant hundreds of jobs for our town. The present economic downturn sees the postponement of those planned projects, and we must concentrate on developing our warm welcome and achieving and developing smaller more intimate boutique style developments and shopping. One further way we can develop projects is to look at what assets our town possesses and develop them. Our people, our businesses and our tourism's potential business is unrivalled but we must continue to attracting our townspeople and those from outside our town boundaries to explore and spend their time and money in our town. Athy is a hidden jewel in our county and country.
We are fortunate that with the encouragement of Vincent O'Gorman, Athy has been chosen as the first Irish town to benefit under the Shine project. The aims behind the Shine project of being Happy, Interested, Natural and Expert are those similar to which we seek to portray to those interested in coming to avail of the many attractions in our town.
As you all know, Athy possesses many attractions and our townspeople have excelled nationally and internationally. We have people who have travelled to the South Pole, people who have excelled in business, both on the national and international stage and just in case any body needed reassurance that Athy is a town full of wonderful talented people who bestride the world stage, this year the Rose of Tralee competition had three Roses born in Athy; The Kildare Rose, Erika Kelly, The Syndey Rose, Romy Donnelly and the London Rose, Charmaine Kenny, and as a testament to her beauty, talents and qualities Charmaine Kenny was crowned the International Rose of Tralee.
At the start of this year, Athy Chamber put together a 20 point Operating Plan to assist our town. This Plan is for the whole town not for just any one interest group. Part of our plan is made up of a section dealing with Tourism.
Our plan is not the panacea for all our requirements but the plan, subject to review, should allow us commence our involvement in the Shine town project. Within a 5 mile radius of Athy there is 50 miles of river frontage, and there are thousands of fishermen in Ireland and abroad which should be encouraged to visit our town.
One of the biggest growth areas at present is walking tours, Athy has huge potential to exploit this market. We have high quality hotels, guest houses and B&B.s and these can cater for our tourism potential. A key point of the Shine project is not only to shine to the domestic and international tourist markets but also to ourselves. By showing ourselves to be happy, interested, natural and expert our townspeople we can encourage all to shine.
Athy Chamber is an organization of business people working together, committed to promoting the economic prosperity of business and industry in Athy and the South Kildare area. Its vision, intention and determination is to unlock the potential of Athy and its hinterland, to unlock the strengths of the business community and encourage them to play our strengths We seek to promote Athy and its hinterlands as an attractive vibrant location to work, live and visit.
We wholeheartedly support the Shine Project and are appreciative that Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland have recognised the potential of our town. If there is anything we in the Chamber can do to support this project, please ask and we will endeavour to assist.
September, 2009.
Paul A. Cunningham,
President, Athy Chamber,
