Tourism down as Angela’s Ashes tours dry up

MIKE O’DONNELL believes his Angela’s Ashes walking tour of Limerick is a good barometer of the state of the tourism industry around the country.

Over the past six years he has shown tens of thousands of visitors along the streets where Frank McCourt spent his childhood of misery. Over the weekend, however, Mr O’Donnell endured his quietest day. Netta Levy, a 35-year-old marketing manager from Wisconsin in the US, got a personalised tour because she was his only customer. Mr O’Donnell attributes the decline to the war in Iraq.

“The numbers have been falling since 9/11. I started the tours in November 1998 and I have been out almost every day except Christmas day with visitors from all over the world,” the 65-year-old from Ballynanty said.