Tipperary Transforming Launch

Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council, Cllr Michael Smith, cordially invites you to the

 

Tipperary Transforming Launch

Supporting Tourism, Growing Resilience

 

A virtual event taking place on March 24th from 11am until 12.45pm.

 

The tourism and hospitality sector has experienced long and enduring challenges with remarkable resilience. Tipperary County Council in partnership with Fáilte Ireland and Tipperary Tourism, is hosting a virtual event for our industry partners to provide an opportunity to share tourism development and marketing plans and to connect with you and support you as we move through the pandemic towards brighter days ahead.

 

The event will feature:

  • The launch of the recently developed Tipperary Transforming, Tourism Product

Development Plan 2020 – 2030.

  • Insights from Fáilte Ireland on unlocking the potential of Cashel to elevate

destination Tipperary.

  • Details on Tipperary Tourism’s Marketing Plan for 2021 including how you can get

involved and leverage opportunities for your business.

 

Registration is available at the following link:  https://bit.ly/3v4ZGUr

 Once you have registered you will receive details on how to join the webinar.

We look forward to connecting with you on March 24th. Please note the below Agenda.

 

Agenda

Topic                                                                     Speaker

 

Introduction & MC                                                  Pat Slattery, Director of Services, Tipperary County Council

 

Welcome & Launch                                               Cllr Michael Smith, Cathaoirleach, Tipperary County Council

 

Tipperary Transforming    2020-2030                   Marie Phelan, Tourism Development Officer, Tipperary County Council

 

Unlocking Cashel                                                Brian O’Flynn, Head of Irelands Ancient East, Fáilte Ireland

 

Failte Ireland Tipperary Update                          Brian O’Flynn, Head of Irelands Ancient East  & Mark McGovern, Manager, Irelands Hidden  Heartlands, Fáilte Ireland

 

Destination Resilience & Marketing                   Elizabeth Nallen Bowen, Chairperson, Tipperary Tourism

 

Panel Discussion                                               Supporting Tourism, Growing Resilience

 

Closing Remarks                                               Joe MacGrath, Chief Executive, Tipperary County Council

 

Panel Discussion

The panel will be made up of the four speakers, myself, Brian, Mark and Eliz, hosted by Pat.

 

We welcome your engagement and participation in this event.  We cordially invite you to submit any questions you may have via email to Mairead.winters@tipperarycoco.ie and our moderator will endeavour to get through as many topics as we can during the panel discussion segment of the event on March 24th.

 

 

Tipperary Tourism Website Launch

Tipperary Tourism and Tipperary County Council cordially invites you to the official launch
of the newly redeveloped county tourism website
www.tipperary.com
by
Cathaoirleach of Tipperary County Council,
Cllr Michael Murphy.
This event will also mark the launch of Tipperary Tourism’s Membership Scheme 2020
and the launch of the newly upgraded historic town trail in Tipperary
On Tuesday 28th January 2020 at 10.30am at
Tipperary Excel, Mitchell St., Tipperary Town
Tipperary Tourism Website Launch
One County One Council
One Community
Please RSVP by email to
tourism@tipperarycoco.ie
or by phone to 0761066209
by 23rd January 2020

Rock Of Cashel

Overview

The setting for centuries of bitter feuds between Irish royal houses, the Rock of Cashel rears up from the fertile plain of the Golden Vale and dominates the landscape for miles around.

Follow in the footsteps of kings and queens, saints and soldiers, as you ascend the hill from the picturesque market town of Cashel towards this spectacular group of medieval buildings that appear to grow out of the grassy outcrop of limestone on which they sit.

Once there, you will discover the castle, cathedral, chapel, and round tower – buildings and artefacts dating back 1,500 years which embody the impregnability of the Rock.

 

St Patrick banished Satan

According to local myth, it was originally part of the Devil’s Bit, a mountain 30km to the north. But when St Patrick banished Satan from a cave on the mountain, the conflict resulted in the Rock flying through the air and landing in Cashel.

Indeed, the Rock is often called St Patrick’s Rock and the saint reputedly converted King Aenghus to Christianity here in the 5th Century. Cashel has always been a symbol of royal and religious power.

For the next 500 years, it was the seat of the Eóganacht dynasty of Kings of Munster, gentle and sophisticated rulers, who mostly used political and economic skills, rather than military might, to achieve their status. In time though, family feuds weakened them.

Mathgamain Boruma (Boru) took over but his rule was short-lived. He was murdered by a rival and soon after his brother, Brian Boru, future High King of Ireland, assumed overlordship of Cashel by force of arms.

Some two centuries later, the Rock of Cashel was given to the Bishop of Limerick, and in 1134 the church known as Cormac’s Chapel, named after Cormac III, King of Munster, was consecrated. A highlight of the Chapel are its frescoes, which are the oldest Romanesque wall paintings in Ireland. They were covered with whitewash during the Reformation in the 16th Century and forgotten about until they were rediscovered in the 1980s.

 

Controversial clergy

It was also around the time of the Reformation that the Rock came under the control of arguably the most colourful of the clergymen who have called Cashel home: the controversial Archbishop of Cashel, Miler Magrath.

At a time of polarised religious sentiment, Magrath he managed to simultaneously be a Catholic and a Protestant bishop who managed to alienate both sects; a Franciscan friar with vows of poverty, chastity and obedience who was also a married man with nine children and was accused of corruption and double-dealing; and a church leader who informed on and denounced his peers and other public figures.

Somehow he still managed to live to the ripe old age of 100. On his his tomb in St Patrick’s Cathedral is his epitaph, written by Macgrath himself and which perhaps alludes to him having a foot in both religious camps. It includes the lines: “Here where I am placed I am not. I am not where I am not. Nor am I in both places, but I am in each.”

Some believe that the character of Magrath in James Joyce’s novel Finnegans Wake owes something to the reputation of Miler Magrath.

There were dark times for the clergy came on the Rock, none more so than in 1647 when, during the Irish Confederate Wars, Cashel was sacked by English Parliamentarian troops under Murrough O’Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin. More than 1,000

Irish Confederate troops and civilians, including several prominent clerics, were massacred, however the site continued to be used by the Church.

 

 

Experience incredible stories

Today the Rock of Cashel is one of Ireland’s leading tourist attractions. Visitors enter via the restored 15th-century Hall of the Vicars Choral, named for the eight laymen (sometimes minor canons) who were appointed to assist in chanting the cathedral services.

Their number was later reduced to five, who appointed ‘singing-men’ as their deputies, a practice which continued into the 19th Century, long after the roof had been removed from the cathedral by Arthur Price, the Anglican Archbishop of Cashel. His decision was widely condemned, as the cathedral was seen as a jewel amongst Irish church buildings.

Exploring solo or listening to the lively narrations of a guide, your experience of the Rock of Cashel will encompass the 12th-century St Patrick’s Cross, Round Tower and outstanding Romanesque Cormac’s Chapel, the 13th-century Gothic cathedral, and 15th-century castle.

Throughout your Rock of Cashel experience, you are accompanied by audio-visual shows and exhibitions which bring centuries of the Rock’s incredible stories to life.

 

The Trip To Tipp

‘Féile was special, it was iconic, it was our Woodstock’

It was the year that Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Germany was reunified after the fall of the Berlin Wall and a computer whizz called Tim Berners-Lee was registering something new called the World Wide Web.

It was also the year that changed everything when it came to live music and festivals in Ireland. It was 1990 when Féile first got under way and the Irish summer would never be the same.

Féile ushered in the idea of seeing multiple acts over the course of a weekend. It created the notion of a destination event – one that you wanted to attend before you even knew who was on the line-up – and it sowed the seeds for the likes of current Irish music festivals including Electric Picnic and Longitude. 

Bring your own tent and find hygiene where you can. Féile was different and for an entire generation, the words ‘Trip to Tipp’ would be forever etched into their memories. 

 

Changing Times

Féile was originally proposed as a means of paying back the €1 million plus cost of upgrading Semple Stadium in Thurles, Co Tipperary, to accommodate the 1984 Centenary All-Ireland Hurling Final.

The church didn’t like it, the local Gaelic sportsmen didn’t like it, the young farmers didn’t like it, and if this had been 1950s Ireland, the whole idea would have been shelved. However, it was 1990, and the country was changing.

The Tipperary County Board GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) felt brave enough to proceed with the weekend-long music festival in Semple Stadium.

Such was the success of the first Trip to Tipp that artists from all over the world – including INXS, Iggy Pop, Simply Red, Nanci Griffith, Bryan Adams, The Cranberries, Elvis Costello and Bjork – were clamouring to play Thurles. It seemed, for a time, that Féile might become Europe’s top music event. 

However, Tipperary County Board decided not to continue as a concert promoter and, in 1995, Féile moved to Cork – but it wasn’t quite the same. 

After a final one-day Thurles concert in 1997, the event dropped from the musical calendar altogether. It looked like the Trip to Tipp, after an all-too-brief moment in the sun, was gone forever.

 

Féile Revival

Fast forward 21 years…  

Tom Dunne, broadcaster and frontman of Irish rock band Something Happens, who played the very first Féile in 1990, was invited to organise and curate a one-off one-day revival of the festival, under the name Féile Classical, in the Semple Stadium in September 2018. 

He brought together a selection of Irish acts from the 1990s glory days, with The Stunning, Hothouse Flowers, An Emotional Fish, The 4 of Us, and The Frank and Walters, all taking to the stage. Dunne said: “Féile was special, it was iconic, it was our Woodstock and Féile Classical will be an even bigger, better, louder explosion of the best of those days and so much more.”

The event was very different to the Trip To Tipp of the ’90s – fully seated, with luxuries like a choice of clean toilets, gourmet vegan food stalls, and a selection of pop-up gin and Prosecco bars – a far cry from ham sandwiches and slabs of beer from the local convenience store. What it shared was its success and the obvious love from its audience.

So much so that it’s back in 2019. No longer a one-day event called Féile Classical, now it’s the Tipp Classical 2019 weekend (September 20/21) – which might as well be the Trip to Tipp, or close enough for jazz, in any case. 

The line-up includes The Stunning, The Sultans of Ping, The Frank and Walters, Therapy? and Wendy James of Transvision Vamp. As Dunne said: “The Trip to Tipp is back and it needs to stay.”

 

Festival line-up

The Tipp Classical 2019 weekend is just one of many excellent festivals and events to be enjoyed throughout Tipperary. 

The Clonmel Junction Festival (3-9 July) features an exciting new cabaret venue, some pop-up art installations in the heart of the town, a host of music and theatre shows, and lots of ways to get involved either as a spectator or performer.

There’s fun and nostalgia aplenty at It’s a Long Way To Tipperary (14-15 July), during which Tipperary town is transported back to the 19th Century through a mix of beautiful vintage cars and clothing, horses and carts, and traditional music, song and dance.

The Cashel Arts Festival (19-22 September) uses the town’s heritage sites, including the ancient and iconic Rock of Cashel, as dramatic backdrops to a fine selection of contemporary arts events. Take your pick from music, dance, visual arts, film, theatre, workshops, family events and literature events. 

Some of Ireland’s best amateur musical theatre groups are showcased at the Carrick Music Theatre Festival in Carrick-on-Suir (4-6 November), while Clonmel Applefest (27-29 September) brings the town’s medieval heart to life with a celebration of its industrial and agricultural heritage. Enjoy a wide range of events around all things apple, food and biodiversity – including craft activities, apple pressing, delicious local foods, storytelling, talks and walks, tastings and a community street feast.

Also celebrating the bounty of Tipperary’s rich and fertile lands is A Taste of Lough Derg, a series of food events around the towns and villages of the Lough Derg Lakelands running from June to September.

Click here for more information about What’s on in Tipperary.