Two Athy projects receive tourism grants

TWO tourism projects in Athy have benefitted from a grant for tourism projects to the combined tune of almost €350,000, nearly 10 per cent of the entire fund.

The Fennell family’s Burtown House and Gardens will collect the lion’s share of the State munificence, receiving €300,000 to help develop four off-grid eco-cabins, while boattrips.ie, the brainchild of Clifford Reid will get €48,000 towards two more boats for an extension of his tours of the Barrow.

“Our plan is to launch two new boats for Athy, but open boats like we use in Kilkenny,” said Clifford.

“Our barge in Athy can only take 12, now we should be able to take 36.

“We want to build the boats the same size as the ‘James Caird’, Shackleton’s rescue boat, so people coming on bus trips to the Museum can then travel down the Barrow and experience what it’s like in a boat the size of his,” said Clifford.

(To be fair, Ernest and Co. took their boat across 800 miles of the roughest Southern Ocean, only to land on the wrong side of the rescue island, thus having to climb over a mountain range, but…) “They will get all the history of the river from the Vikings to the Normans to the construction of the canal system 250 years ago, and all the ecology of the river,” said Clifford.

“It will be roughly an hour long trip, the duration we’ve found to be most popular in Kilkenny.

“That’s if it all goes to plan…I’ll have to put in €15-€20,000, as the grant only covers about 60 per cent of the total funding…and then we have to wait for the public tendering process, but we hope to employ two more tour guides here in Athy next summer.

“People in wheelchairs or with mobility issues can always use the barge ‘Saoirse ar an Uisce’ [‘Freedom on the Water’],” he concluded It was announced on Wednesday (6 August) that a total of €3.6m would be awarded to 24 new tourism projects across the Midlands Under the EU’s ‘Just Transition Fund’ for private and community SME Schemes.

‘Just Transition’ is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union, and this is the third announcement of successful projects under the Private and Community SE scheme.

The 24 projects represent the latest successful grantees to have signed Investment Grant Agreements with Fáilte Ireland, receiving over €3.6 million in grant-aid.

The final successful projects are expected to be announced under this scheme in September this year.

Projects span four regenerative tourism development categories, including the Development or Enhancement of Sustainable Visitor Experiences; Development of Sustainable/Low Carbon Tourist Accommodation; Capital Project Planning and Design; and Accessibility enhancements to provide a more inclusive visitor experience.