Livingstone accommodating a sporting tradition
“Fair dues to you,” said the pal. “You had some impact in the 10 years you were here.”
Livingstone had to correct the record; he’s only been in Cork for four and a half years, but the friend was correct in one way.
The Waterford man packed the impact of a decade into his time on Leeside.
If the name is familiar, then chances are you associate Livingstone with the Rochestown Park Hotel, which he managed up to a fortnight ago, and its varied sporting commitments. The outgoing boss says that sporting link was far from accidental.
“The owners of the Rochestown, the Lehanes, are very much GAA people, very into Irish heritage, and what I brought in was a wish to involve the grassroots and the community, because that was what made the hotel successful.
“So we decided to give back through sport, because everybody has some affiliation to sport, whether through playing or mentoring or through family, so that was an obvious move for us.”
The most obvious of those obvious moves was the monthly GAA award, a coveted bauble among hurlers and footballers in the Rebel County.
“The monthly GAA sports stars awards was already in place, and it’s now in its eighth year and has grown in leaps and bounds. It’s nearly as hard to win one of those as it is to win an All Star, the quality of GAA achievement in Cork is so high.”
Livingstone then looked at the grassroots again, and the hotel sponsored the non-examination hurling leagues, and colleges competitions like the Simcox Cup.
“Because of all of those, the hotel became a natural home for GAA and the highlight of that was the annual GAA Congress, which was held in the hotel in 2009; that Congress saw a Corkman, Christy Cooney, become GAA president, so that was huge. We’d refurbished the hotel just before that, so it was great to have the Congress come in at that time.”
Livingstone moved on; he met up with Dan Linehan of the Evening Echo newspaper and they organised ladies’ sports star awards.
“It was crying out to be done,” says Livingstone.
“The quality of female sports people has been unbelievable — world champions in various sports, never mind ladies GAA, which has been outstandingly successful in recent years as well.”
He wasn’t finished yet. The Waterford native plays down his own ability on the rugby field but he has a keen interest in the sport, so he went out and met various local rugby clubs, and...
“Cork Constitution were among the clubs I visited and they welcomed me with open arms.”
After a couple of weeks of going to Temple Hill with his son Josh, Livingstone inquired about the Rochestown sponsoring a pitchside hoarding. While discussing the amount with club officials, he noticed the senior team didn’t have a shirt sponsor, so he upgraded his offer.
“They were taken aback, but I was serious. I met a couple of the lads in the club and we hammered out a deal and it was a relationship made in heaven — the first year they won all in front of them, the Charity Cup, the All-Ireland League, everything. Obviously I didn’t know that when we started sponsoring them, but after that success we extended the sponsorship, and it goes to the end of next season.”
Livingstone is open about the benefits sport has brought to the hotel. He thanks the Cork County Board and Cork Constitution for the business, and for the referrals; inter-county sides and rugby clubs from up the country ringing those bodies to recommend a hotel got directed towards the Rochestown, and then other organisations joined in. Now the FAI billets its referees there, while in the past the likes of Celtic and Sunderland have bedded down as well.
It’s been frenetic. For the last few years whenever Livingstone and Josh have fetched up at a sports event — any sports event — the customers have been making inquiries of him, right there on the sideline. A wedding here, a christening lunch there; Livingstone soon realised that it wasn’t really about socialising at rugby matches and hurling games, and brought a pen and diary to take the bookings while the scoreboard was ticking over.
Where to next? “I’m going to the Carlton in Galway,” he says. “It’s a fine big hotel and I’m looking forward to taking the same approach, to getting out and meeting people in sport in Galway.”
If you live in the capital of Connacht, then prepare for the hurricane.
* michael.moynihan@examiner.ie ; Twitter: MikeMoynihanEx
