Let’s treasure our true Irish heritage

PADDY’S DAY is a great time to meet up with the friends and have a good bit of fun.

It’s also a great excuse for kids to go out and about and ooh and ahhh at the bright colours passing through the streets.

I was invited down to a little village in West Cork called Kealkill, and I realised what the day was really all about. Young children got the opportunity to do jigs up the street while the older people got to show off their new tractors.

As grand marshall, I was thinking to myself ‘sure this is only a small village, I won’t have to do much’. By God, when I sat into the car and met the first line of people I realised how much my attendance meant to the locals. Everyone was waving and throwing their arms about, having great fun.

Afterwards, I went to the local pubs to see what was happening. The spirit and the atmosphere was alive. All the locals came up to me thanking me and wishing me well. Everyone was happy, there was no mention of ‘recession’ or ‘government’ or ‘cutbacks’. For the few hours a person was out, their worries had vanished.

After spending time with the locals in Kealkill, the family and I moved on to Ballingeary (or Béal Athan Ghaorthaidh). Everyone in Seartan’s pub was prepared to have fun. The atmosphere and friendliness really did impress me. Whatever pub or village you went into, no one was judging you or looking at you in a weird way. From the cheers and waves in Kealkill, to the heroes’ welcome in Beal Atha/Seartans.

If a small rural village can put on such a show with a mixture of all kinds of people, why are the Government continuously cutting off the rural village? All kinds of life was there in those pubs — young ones sipping on 7Ups, and the older ones downing their pints. If we spent more of our time promoting places like these, then tourism might get a boost.

It’s hard to say will The Gathering 2013 help these kinds of places when all we’re advertising are our cities and large towns.

With my experience in America, small villages are what the Yanks are looking for. They don’t want to be flying from one city to another, they want to be flying into areas with open views and green hills.

The Gaeltacht is a very nice place to take tourists. Sure they’re only mad to hear the Irish language.

If it really wasn’t for Patrick’s Day, we would not be celebrating anything Irish. So I say, let’s treasure our green hills, our rural villages, the Gaeltacht — our real Irish identity.