Ireland's welcoming committee: From Game of Thrones' tour guides to the Guinness brewery
meets the people whose job it is to give tourists that special Irish welcome.
They’re the welcoming committee who help preserve Ireland’s reputation as a friendly place — the tourism industry workers personally responsible for our Céad Mile Fáilte. With more than 11.2m visitors to Ireland in 2018, spending over €6.1bn, knowing what sets us apart as a tourist destination makes economic as well as social sense.
As tourism numbers here continue to smash records, we spoke to some of our tour guides and hospitality workers about preserving Ireland’s reputation as a special place.
The tour guide
For Richard Hodgen, donning a large cape and brandishing a sword are all part of his day job. Richard is a tour guide for Game of Thrones Tours in Northern Ireland — and sometimes even gets into character for photos with travellers keen to discover the dramatic real-life locations of the Iron Islands and Dark Hedges.
For Richard, it marries two of his great loves — the show itself and the chance to show off his home country at its finest. He was such a fan of the show that he even regularly worked as an extra on seasons five and six.
“I think I got called because I had a beard!” he smiles. “I was quite heavily featured in the Battle of Hardhome, which has a big dialogue sequence and build-up where I was positioned next to one of the actors.
“A lot of the work I did was in battle sequences. They’re long days in clumps at a time. It was cool, especially the battle stuff. You band together as friends and keep each other going.”
Most of his colleagues are also former extras who have trained up as tour guides to relive the most successful show ever filmed in the North. The benefit to the region and to Tourism Northern Ireland, he agrees, has been phenomenal, with fans of the show travelling from all corners of the Earth to experience the other-worldly locations like Cushendun Caves and the Causeway coastline for themselves. As someone who grew up during The Troubles, it’s something he greatly values.
“For years, people would come in through Dublin, do the Ring of Kerry and the west. Now some of them are coming up north. Tourism in Ireland is now a solid loop, which it wasn’t for a long time.
It is unfathomable the influence it’s had. I couldn’t even begin to count it. There are young film students who trained on GOT who are now travelling and working around the world.
“Ballintoy Harbour is massive for us, it appears on the show pretty much exactly as it is. You’re literally standing there and there are 15 different locations in the one harbour that feature. It’s always been a picturesque spot, but since GOT, it’s just shot through the roof.
“We’ll play a clip on the way to the locations and five minutes later tourists are standing in that location. Fans love it, but you don’t have to be a massive GOT fan because you get to see the Antrim coastline, Giant’s Causeway and coast of Scotland.”
www.gameofthronestours.com
The science explainer
As science explainer at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork, Cian O’Regan is well used to fielding questions about the universe and life in outer space. But sometimes an enquiry can leave even this self-confessed space addict floored. “Even if you know everything in the world about space, you could still be stumped by a kid’s question — they ask the toughest questions, definitely! I remember once a five-year-old asked me: ‘Does light have mass?’,” he says.
For the student, his role was born out of a long-held interest in the universe. “I had a lifetime passion for space, astronomy, and science and started attending talks here, then handed in my CV. I was always interested in it, even as a child. Then I found Blackrock Castle on my doorstep.”
The observatory, located in the stunning surrounds of the castle, is growing as a tourist destination and they recently passed the one-million-visitor mark since opening in 2007. This summer has been especially busy, with numerous events to mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.
He loves interacting with people from all over the world during the seven or eight tours a day he’d lead during the summer season. “We have people from New Zealand, America, Canada. We have people coming from Cork going: ‘I grew up 10 minutes away, and this is my first time coming here’.”
Cian continually reads up on his subject matter, as information is constantly evolving.
When I started here, Saturn had 61 moons and now has 64 because they’re finding new ones, new information, all the time.
He frequently hears tourists remark on the friendliness of the Irish and feels it’s one of our greatest assets. “It’s always the first thing they say, that the people are so warm and friendly. I think it’s our storytelling. We lay down the red carpet and we’re good at it. Pride of place comes into it as well, and a realisation that we live in a beautiful country and we’re happy to show it off.”
The restaurant manager
As manager and front-of-house person at top Dublin restaurant The Green Hen, Alanna Feeney understands more than most the value of the warm Irish welcome. The busy French bistro-style restaurant’s city centre location means she and her team welcome guests from all over the world.
“We do 850-900 covers a week and we’re here close to 10 years,” she says. “We get a lot of tourists, we have great established relationships with concierges in top hotels which is crucial during the summer months when many Dubliners are away. We have a team of people who are passionate about service because people see through the BS of ‘have a nice day’ if there’s insincerity.”
As visitors to the city will know, the capital has become an extremely competitive environment for restaurateurs, and Alanna’s marketing background (“I got bitten by the bug of hospitality”) gives her an extra perspective.
“Dublin has changed drastically in the restaurant industry. You have to look after every man, woman, and child who comes in the door. You’re not going to get away with just serving up good food, you have to make it memorable for the right reasons.
"Our tourist friends are the ones who are very influential on social media, probably even more so than Irish customers.
I find with tourists, if they have a really positive experience, they will share that online and recommend you to friends and family.
Alanna agrees that our knack for hospitality helps set us apart. “For a period of time I think people became complacent during the Celtic Tiger era. But I do think it’s innately in us. You can’t teach genuine old-school hospitality to any nation.
"But there’s still a charm and warmth to us that a lot of customers love. I think we have some of the best producers in the world. We have fresh seasonality, we have dynamic chefs.
"From that point of view, I think Ireland is pretty special. I think we need to look at ways to deviate from the usual things and focus more on the gastronomy.
"Think outside the box slightly — and if we could manage to change the weather!”
The beer specialist
As a beer specialist at Guinness Storehouse — the most popular tourist attraction in Ireland — Kevin Egan has enjoyed connecting with people from all over the world. But one of his most moving encounters was when an American visitor introduced him to the remains of her late husband.
“You do have some very interesting interactions,” he observes. “In the Connoisseur Bar I always go round and ask people their name and where they’re from, just to kind of break the barriers down a little. I met this woman and I’ll never forget it.
"She said her name and then she said to me: ‘This is Michael’. It was her dead husband’s ashes which were in an urn and she put them on the bar in front of me. She said that Michael always wanted to come to Guinness. That was really sweet that she brought him. He’d never been, but he always wanted to come.”
Kevin adores meeting just some of the 1.8m visitors to the Storehouse every year, not least because his own family history is steeped in St James’ Gate.
I’m quite unusual in this building because my family’s worked here since 1873.
"There’s a long attachment I have with Guinness, I grew up with stories of Guinness from my grandfather. I would be fifth generation. It’s a lovely thing to say when you come in to work.”
Kevin has trained as a brewer and a sommelier as part of his role, guiding visitors through tastings at The Connoisseur Bar. They’ve sometimes included familiar faces. “I think the most famous one I ever had to take care of was Prince Albert of Monaco. He’s a very charming man. He was high-fiving everybody as he was going around.”
He says tourists regularly tell him that the friendliness of the Irish enhances their holiday memories. “That’s what we want people to have as soon as they come here. It is extraordinarily important because I think if you don’t have a good welcome somewhere that will impact the rest of your experience of the place.”
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