Courses will help get Ireland back in swing

I had the honour of playing the Waterville Links course in Co Kerry last weekend.

For any golfer to play in such a serene setting overlooking Ballinskelligs Bay and on the texture of Waterville’s Links course, it is no wonder both elite and all grades of golfers from overseas make it a mission to play the famed Kerry golf course.

Thirty-six years ago, after bringing two executives from the Adidas headquarters in Germany on a visit to four Irish textile manufacturing companies, I flew the Germans on an Aer Arran flight to Ballinskelligs, landing on the John A Mulcahy air strip on the beach.

It was there that I sold the idea of manufacturing in Ireland to the Germans, and during the following 10 years over 12m three-stripe T-shirts, sweat suits, and sweat pants bearing the Adidas brand were produced in Buncrana for the Central European markets.

Our country is not as competitive as it once was all these years ago in the manufacturing sector, but its beauty and incredible sporting assets such as Waterville Golf Links have not changed.

It is the marketing of such assets that will rise our country out of its present economic circumstances.

Michael O’Connell

Fair Hill

Passage West

Co Cork