Get to Know the Real Ireland!

There is a level at which your fitness will stop you enjoying it.

But most adults of average fitness, it's an open fit, it's the wild weather, but it's spectacularly difficult.

SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the local unlike the adult, the podcast or fire.

SPEAKER_03: I'm of course your host of Seven Of, and you are tuning in to episode number 32 of which, well, it's coming out on St.

Patrick today.

Can't beat that.

So I hope you're out having an awesome time today.

Hopefully, you've maybe got a beer in your hand, a corned beef ruben, maybe some corned beef and cabbage.

I don't know.

You eat what you want, I'll just worry about giving you a podcast to listen to.

And today, I have to say, it's pretty awesome because we are joined by a guest live from Ireland.

And her name is Emer Flanagan, and she has a tour company called Away A We Walk.

She offers guided hiking tours throughout Northern Ireland.

Absolutely breathtaking.

It's one of those add-ons to your vacation in Ireland that can literally take it to the next level.

Because you know what?

You gotta get out of the city of Dublin.

You can't sit at the bar all day long.

You gotta get out and experience the nature.

I mean, my goodness, Ireland is such a gorgeous destination.

And well, nobody knows it quite like my guest today.

So if you're ready, let's go ahead and get this St.

Patrick's Day edition of the podcast kicked in the year.

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Hey guys, I am super excited to be here on St.

Patrick's Day with E-Merplaying Again with Away A We Walk.

Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Kevin.

I'm happy St.

Patrick's Day, everybody from Ireland.

SPEAKER_03: Yes, well, oh my goodness, I'm so excited to have you here today.

And I don't know, I guess first off, I just have to say how amazing it is with technology that we can be sitting here having a conversation.

Me here in Florida and you all the way in Ireland.

That's pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_00: It's super, it really is.

Thank goodness for this troublesome year we've had that we've got all this tech that we can at least talk about Ireland, if nothing else.

SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.

I was gonna say, it seems like oftentimes we talk bad about technology.

And but you know what?

Sometimes, like you said in this past year, you realize the benefits of it.

So wonderful.

Sure.

Yeah, well, wonderful.

Well, I wanted to have you on today because you are, as we said, located in Ireland, and I thought how fitting uh celebrating St.

Patrick's Day.

And so I want to, I guess, get started before we dive into your company and in and the amazing opportunities that you provide to visitors to Ireland.

I would love first to get to know you a little bit.

So I guess we'll start with.

So are you originally from Ireland?

SPEAKER_00: Um, yes, I am.

Uh some of your listeners will know from my accent.

I am from Belfast City, which is Ireland's second city.

It's about half the size of Dublin.

So I'm a mid-1970s babe.

So I was born in Belfast in 74.

And yes, have lived here most of my life, but not all of it.

I um studied Irish history at a university up in Derry or London, Derry, as it might be known to some, which is about an hour and 40 minutes' drive from Belfast.

And I also lived in Dubai in the Middle East for four and a half years, but outside of that, I have lived in North Belfast my whole life.

SPEAKER_03: Well, but Dubai, that was a big difference.

SPEAKER_00: That was, and I chose to move there in October 20, 2001, and which was an eventful time to move to the Middle East.

But I had out plans.

I had a cousin who had gone there, and a whole lot of her cousins had gone, and it was a good time to be in Dubai for Western expats, for expats from anywhere, you know, it was really developing.

I once saw it compared to kind of New York of the early 1900s in terms of the scale and pace of its development and employment opportunities and sunshine all year round, all that good stuff.

So I had plans to go, and then obviously a major event happened on the world stage in September 2001.

And in fairness, my great boss at the time, I was working for a charity, and she she gave me permission to renege on my notice and stay in Ireland, and I was too stubborn and says, No, I'm going to the Middle East.

So off I went.

And it was great, like it was strange those early weeks for those of us who remember it.

Definitely, it was a strange time anywhere on earth.

But no, I got I got a job.

I that was the first time I worked in tourism.

Dubai really took off in those early years, and it hadn't done where I was from in Belfast.

Tourism was well more established in other parts of Ireland, but definitely not in the north at that time.

So the first time I did any tour riding, um, I worked at a golf course and horse racing venue over there.

And yeah, dude, I was in my late 20s, early 30s.

It was fun.

It's not as strict, people have a perception that Dubai is really strict in terms of alcohol and stuff, but that's not true.

It's um it's known as Sin City, actually, in the region, because it's it's very liberal.

You can live an entirely Western lifestyle, and I did.

SPEAKER_03: Yes, that's so amazing.

Now, now, so in Ireland, do you have a lot of family there where you live?

SPEAKER_00: Yes, well, I've some siblings that live in England, uh, but most of us are still in either in Belfast or in the you know within a half hour of Belfast.

We tend to in Ireland live much closer to family than what you guys can traditionally do.

So I have one sister who lives four or five minutes' drive from me.

My dad's he's he's still around and he's in his late 70s and has a few health complications, certainly this winter of all winters.

So he but he he's been in hospital, but he lives like a less than a two-minute drive from where I live.

So that's really nice.

So I've sisters, I've lots of nieces and nephews.

Yeah, it's good.

It's one of the reasons I came home from Dubai was family and being close to the case.

SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, absolutely.

I'm I'm somebody huge, huge about family, and that's what that's what where I live.

I mean, literally, my my grandmother is like two minutes from my house, my other grandmother is about five minutes from where I live.

And and I tell you, family means a lot.

Is that something common throughout Ireland?

Is family?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we would be much more traditional in that sense in comparison, like even just to England, that family units.

It's changed a lot in my in my lifetime.

You know, it's not quite what it was when I was younger, but it's it's still, yeah, it's a fairly crucial part of life, important part of life.

We would see each other probably far more frequently um than is traditionally the case in a lot of the states and even in places in England and stuff.

So yeah, yeah, family's important.

SPEAKER_03: Awesome, awesome.

Well, that's wonderful.

Now, give me a reference point as far as Ireland, because I think me and I think most people who are listening, we we think of Dublin.

And so, like, where are you located, say, in relation to Dublin?

SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, so I when you look at a map of Ireland, I describe Ireland as it looks a bit like a teddy bear facing the US, actually.

So, but the head of the teddy bear in the northeast, and what is Northern Ireland, and then obviously the arms and legs.

Well, the legs would be County Carey, County Cork, down in the southwest, which is beautiful.

So, your listeners, if they know beyond Dublin, they'll likely know the cliffs of Moore and the west of Ireland, especially the southwest of Ireland.

So that's kind of traditionally where people have come and spent time and spent long periods of time.

But thanks to the Wild Atlantic Way, which is the whole of the west coast of the island of Ireland, which is the beginning of the cent visitors up to beautiful Donegal and other counties in the northwest of Ireland, I'm over in the northeast.

So Belfast is a hundred miles exactly from Dublin, and so both the big cities and most of the population on the island live on the east side of the island, and it's more rural over to the west.

So, yeah, I'm in the I'm in the northeast, but not the very north.

My tours are the very, very north, but that's only an hour's drive from from here.

So Okay.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

Awesome, awesome.

Well, wonderful.

Well, well, let let's hear about your your company, your tour company.

Would love for you to to give those listening a little overview, and then we'll kind of you know dive in deep into a little bit more specific.

SPEAKER_00: Sure, 100%.

So away we walk.

The the history of it's a kind of quirky one.

I I had, you know, I hadn't worked in in tourism here, didn't foresee that.

I studied a degree in Irish history, but more because I was really interested in our politics, which has been really interesting the last 150 years, especially.

So I kind of stumbled into this career.

But when I came back from Dubai, my dad had an art gallery before he retired, and I worked with him selling paintings.

And 2008 happened with a whole economic crash and stuff, and I ended up a few years later leaving the business.

It was, you know, it was gonna close up, and that that was the right thing for the business, and the right thing for me.

And I'd always wanted to walk the Camino in Spain, the long distance.

Traditionally it was a pilgrimage walk, but it's it's quite a secular thing now to do.

I think something like 250,000 people that walk into the Camino de Santiago in in northern Spain per year.

Some of them have just done 100 kilometres.

I walked 800.

Wow.

SPEAKER_03: How long did that take?

SPEAKER_00: Five weeks.

And I can't know.

I did two or three days on a bus when I was recovering from a blister.

But and we in the cities we tended to have a rest day.

But pretty much I walked 500 miles for five weeks after I left my dad's art gallery.

And I'd always wanted to do this.

I'd no idea why I'd wanted to do it.

So the only thing in my life I could say I felt called to do was to do the Camino Santiago.

And the day after I left my dad's business, but the day before I went on the Camino, I a friend of mine helped me set up a blog, and I was going to blog about my walking in Spain.

And I called that blog A Ware We Walk.

Um, which in hindsight is goosebumps because I didn't foresee what the future was, and I didn't get any inspiration of what I was going to do.

I did know I was going to probably be self-employed because I'd worked for my dad and I couldn't see myself come back into the corporate world.

But anyway, that was fine.

I walked for it was late May to late June, a lovely time of year to be in that part of Spain.

I couldn't see my baby tools for three, four months afterwards, but it was terrific.

I remember people from all over the world.

It was great.

And then I came home and I had a winter or two.

I had the idea for what a where we walk was going to be locally that following March time.

I initially thought I was going to take people from Ireland to go walking in Spain.

And then I had a light bulb moment.

And now this story is on the about page on my website of me having that.

What on earth am I doing?

Look at the tourists coming to this part of Ireland, especially by that stage in the north, because tourism hadn't really previously flourished.

And it was a horrible day's weather in the middle of March, well out of peak season.

And I was struck at a particular location in Belfastet and the coaches and the number of visitors.

And it was just like, what are you doing?

Because I knew now I wasn't particularly outdoorsy, and I still wouldn't call myself in any way a hardcore mountaineer at all.

But I knew we had spectacular scenery, and I knew there would have been nobody locally from a tourism point of view, making it easy for visitors who wanted to walk in the scenery and in the landscapes to be able to do that.

And so that was the idea.

I was born.

I hadn't any money at that stage, I hadn't been working for a year, so I had to figure out how to build a website, etc.

But I got launched that summer.

SPEAKER_03: And what year was that?

SPEAKER_00: That was 2013.

Okay.

I launched a tourism business on the 1st of August, which is hilarious.

Okay.

So anybody working in in tourism will know that it's over.

By August, it's over.

So and mind you, if this summer opens up, you know, in the middle of August, who knows what's happening.

But we're not going to be too tied to our traditional seasons for the next while.

I think we're all ready to travel anywhere on earth.

But yeah, so my my first product and my oldest product.

So you may well be familiar with the Giants Causeway, Kevin.

But if you're if you're not, I kind of it would be one of the, you know, it's in the top two or three visitor attractions on the island of Ireland.

So the the most popular one that would be the most famous is the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

So that usually takes number one spot.

Cliffs of Moor is obviously a very popular spot out in the which is a beautiful cliff view over in the west of Ireland.

The Giants Causeway is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It's a geological wonder.

So it's 40,000 basalt columns, but they cooled in such a way that they they look like they've been man-made in parts.

They are hexagons, they're and they are as pristine as that.

They they that's the fascination.

So pre-COVID, you were talking a million visitors a year on the very north coast of Ireland to the Giants Causeway.

But when you're on at the main site of the stones, there's high cliffs over in the east, and there's a stomach, and there's a two-hour walk the other side of this really busy tourist attraction that most people don't even know about.

I knew about it from family vacations as a kid up on the coast.

But to do it in a really off the beaten track way and a really authentic way, and not just taking a box off I've been to the site.

And that was that.

We got that going.

Um today I have lots of options available so you can do it as conveniently as a on a coach tour from Belfast.

I work with um a partner with that, uh one of the coach operators, Irish for Tickets, and you kind of opt out of the big kind of bus tour for a part of the day to do the hike.

The National Trust is an organization that looks after the Giants Causeway, their conservation charity, they manage those million visitors, and I again work in partnership with them where if you're driving around Ireland, and a lot of American visitors will do that so they can get to the coast themselves, that we do the hike then at the Causeway, so we still meet in the visitor centre.

But I describe it as I take people the long way and the wrong way to this really busy attraction, but it is beautiful.

There's a view halfway along there that from Hamilton's seat, it isn't even well known by its name, even locally, because it's you can't shortcut it, you have to walk the five miles and it you know it undulates 200 metres or so.

Sorry, I haven't converted all that into feet for you, but it's you know, it's it's not a flat coastal path, but it's no problem.

Yeah, you don't need to be a marathon runner, you don't need to be a mountaineer.

There is a level of which your fitness will stop you enjoying it.

But most adults of average fitness, it's an open cliff, it's the wild weather, but it's spectacularly beautiful, and it's been my privilege to to showcase it and to grow, you know, our broader products today.

I I walk in more places than that, but that was what got me launched and got me known.

And you know, some of our reviews, highlight of our trip to Ireland.

Um, I've had now they're not all like this, but one lady, an American American lady saying quite simply, one of the best days of her life.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

SPEAKER_00: So I shouldn't overpromise, but it is it highlights the trip to Ireland as something we get quite regular.

So that it's such a privilege, Kevin.

SPEAKER_03: It is just I can imagine.

Now, these hikes, are you guiding the hikes?

SPEAKER_00: So thank goodness the company grew to a stage where I needed a team.

So pre-2019, which was our last real season in travel, I would have had a team of freelance guides who live local to the coast, between five and seven people I could call upon.

We would have had between 10 and 14 tours a week of various sizes in peak season.

So I physically could not do all of them.

I do a lot of them.

Of course.

Yes, that's a good question because I then, once I was trading for a couple of years, I got myself a vehicle.

Um, so I have a small eight-person vehicle, so I can do, I tend to do a lot of our private tour business, which can include the cliffs, but it can also include other places.

And actually, that Cosmic Coast, like to fit into people's daters and people's itineraries, we're doing a five-mile section.

But for people who really want a full day along that coast, it's one of the most continuously beautiful coastlines, definitely in Ireland, potentially in Western Europe.

You can walk, you can actually go to Caracaree Road Bridge, which is a 10-minute drive from the causeway, but it's like an 11-13 mile, tends it's kind of you go off in a separate direction to cross the bridge, and then you come back to your the trailhead.

But you can walk from the bridge to the stones in a day, and that's a stunning walk to beautiful beach.

Um that's a full day tour.

So I tended to do certainly 2019, I tend to pick up a lot of our private tour business work groups, you know, often a lot of couples, couples coming in on a cruise ship and people who just wanted to be on their own clock and to be in the scenery.

SPEAKER_03: Wow.

I just as you sit there and you talk about it.

I mean, I can almost just feel it, feel the the air, feel, I mean, it just it sounds absolutely breathtaking.

SPEAKER_00: And it yeah, and it is, and you know, when you say that of feeling it, it's you know, yeah, I've got people from all over the world, um, the wind can be the big weather condition up there that is really has a lot of variety to it, shall we say?

One thing I've discovered working outdoors in Ireland is, and I'm uh I'm gonna sound like I'm caught in you here, but it's absolutely true.

It does not rain in Ireland as much as we think it does.

It rains frequently, but it very rarely rains all the time.

Oh, okay.

Very, very rarely.

And I've also noticed May and June tend to be, don't hold me to this, okay, tend to be drier than July and August.

Our school holidays are July and August, our schools go right up until the end of June.

So summer, this the summer vacation time in Ireland for the local population is July and August.

But May and June, like really, if school kids popped onto this, there would be a campaign for changing the summer holiday and closer to yours because it definitely on average tends to be drier, a little bit drier.

But yes, it doesn't, it very rarely rains all day.

But yeah, the big weather condition that's sometimes challenging on the high cliffs is the winds can be really, but that's all part of it.

Yeah.

Two lovely Spanish ladies, my early seasons, and like they've rarely experienced a windy day, normal wind.

I hear they were on the north coast in Ireland going, wow, you know, and then it got really stormy, and they went from having something unique to having a story they could tell their grandchildren about.

So it's yeah, it's a treat.

It really is.

It's a beautiful, it's a beautiful way to visit a very popular location in a union.

SPEAKER_03: Now, is there a particular time of year that you feel is is the best for somebody thinking about like especially you know this type of of experience?

SPEAKER_00: For for the stuff I do, so any I would suggest May, June, or September.

July and August are certainly, you know, you can definitely get good weather.

Okay.

But that's places tend to be a little bit more busier.

Okay.

Obviously, I'm talking about a world that used to exist and give myself everything to change.

But you know, if you can avoid certainly August from a the busy places are going to be busy.

But September, the weather can be still nice enough in September.

I've had people on walking holidays in January.

That's the other lovely thing about the weather in Ireland, it's mild year round.

Like given how far north we are, that's incredible.

But it's the Gulf Stream.

You're you're in Florida there, Kevin.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you're you're shipping your weather constantly to Ireland.

And amazingly, you keep us warm all winter, like ridiculously warm.

If we get snow, we'll maybe get in the mountains, which aren't particularly high.

And if snow sticks around, it'll be for a day or two, usually.

And but we can do a whole winter without any snow.

And we are a hundred the north coast of Ireland is a hundred miles.

Is that it's if you know your Canadian geography, the two massive lakes, the Hudson, okay, and is it Lake Ontario, where they meet, is the north coast of Ireland.

So we are north, way north.

And yet we look what that part of Canada has as a winter.

Snow falls in October, stays out in March.

Does not happen in Ireland.

So, yes, you want to come in, you know, the more pleasant weather, which is anything made September and avoid July and August if you can.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: But uh you I've had guests on walking holidays in January.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Wow.

Oh my goodness.

It sounds absolutely amazing.

Now, now, somebody who's coming, I mean, how big do you have a limit as to how many people will be on one of these hikes?

SPEAKER_00: So the public tours, that one that is part of the Belfast all-day trip.

So that's really convenient.

If you can't get to the coast, that's a stupid you're you're getting on a 50-seater coach tour, but as your walking through, busy days would be kind of 14 people doing the hike.

But we would have a lot of tours that are seven and eight people for the Belfast version.

And then if you can drive to the coast and you're doing the clifftop experience that you book to the visitor center there, you can book it with me or you can book it with my partner, none of that matters.

But that's the hike only now.

It doesn't pick up till just afternoon, anyway, so you can have an easy morning.

Those tours, again, busy versions of them will be somewhere between 14 and 18 kind of tops, you usually and then around kind of between eight and 10 for the public versions of the tour.

And then small stuff, like if you're a walking group already, there's a big difference between a group who walks regularly together.

So I would get a lot of groups come over from England and they're walking in landscapes every Tuesday throughout the year.

To manage a group like that, they're far easier managed.

So I can let my numbers go higher.

I can maybe take 22, 24 off a pre-existing walking group.

That's a big difference.

But for my public tours, I kind of limit it up there.

For that, how the causeway we can go up to 18.

But I've got other beautiful places.

There's a lovely small mountain range, okay, an hour southeast drive from Belfast.

What's great about it is really accessible.

Um compact seven square miles, 12 summits over 700 metres.

I really need to do my Imperial conversion for you.

But an hour's drive from Belfast, and then another hour's walking, you're up in a mountain range with spectacular views.

And but that stuff, you know, that's walking on blanket bug.

You definitely need hiking boots.

That's for people who, you know, who really enjoy soft adventure.

But that's you know, raincoat, good shoes, leaves the denim jeans behind, and pretty much everybody's good to go.

Those groups though, I would limit them at eight people, just the mountain environment will be different.

So it depends, depends what you're booking.

But the Causeway Cliffs, good walking shoes or boots are best to have.

That's why I love to talk to people like you because I'd far rather people know they're doing it before they leave their own country so they can pack the right gear.

So that's so yeah, so it depends on the destination.

The Causeway Cliffs will go a little higher on group number, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03: Wow.

Wow, it sounds absolutely amazing.

And and I feel like I mean, I think it's one of those things I think so many people maybe listening and stuff who have thought about.

I think Ireland is, I feel, such a bucket list destination to begin with.

And I just feel like, you know, so many people, you know, you they either go on, you know, guided tours.

I know I do a lot of that with my travel agency, people who do guided tours, or I've had couples who go and they primarily stay, you know, in in Dublin and everything.

But I feel like just to get the experience just outside of the city, outside of all the hustle and bustle, like just that type of Ireland sounds to me what we all picture in our mind when we think of how gorgeous Ireland is.

And and I'm just sitting here thinking of you, like, how awesome is it that you were able to form a career, a business out of showcasing this beautiful side of Ireland.

SPEAKER_00: Completely like I feel so privileged.

I did, I did up until this point last year.

I I regularly refer to myself as a lucky duck, that this I could build my livelihood.

And you know, as the company grew, I started doing diet at walking holidays.

But I I specialize in the north.

I specialize in the northeast, the moor mountains, the Costa Coast.

That sense, and a lot of visitors, especially North American visitors, and you might be familiar with that, they want to see it all, and they want to see it all in seven to ten days.

And I, of course, would say this, but genuinely, from and you're right, Dublin is Dublin, and Dublin is terrific, but it's not Ireland, Ireland.

It's not the I almost say there's there'd almost be three Irelands, maybe, maybe you know, the west, the wild, rugged west rural coast is such a different dynamic to obviously Dublin in the east, and then both those places really different again to to Northern Ireland in the northeast.

You kind of get a mix of both cities.

Dublin, uh Belfast is you know, it's a thriving city.

We've got a great food scene and a great music scene.

Tourism's really thrived here in the last 10 years, but we're half the size of Dublin, so we're not over the touristy yet in a way.

Parts Dublin can be.

Yeah, I recommend, you know, do it in a couple of parts.

I know it's a bucket list, and for a lot of people, they're gonna come once and do a big trip.

But if people can, I'd say, you know, you're gonna fall in love with it anyway.

So split it into two or three visits and take a corner at a time.

And I'd suggest staying two nights in any one place.

By the time you've fallen in love with a little town in the west coast of Ireland or the north coast, there's so much.

We look tiny in comparison to the US, but actually, you know, there's plenty to see, and it's uh it's it's not to be rushed, you know.

If you're trying to do the whole island in a week, you're ripping yourself off.

SPEAKER_03: We all know some of the best things in life come in small packages.

And so, yes.

Oh my goodness, it sounds amazing.

Now, no, I have to ask you a little bit change of pace here for the conversation, but with uh this episode of the podcast being released on St.

Patrick's Day, what does it look like in Ireland on St.

Patrick's Day?

SPEAKER_00: Okay, so terrific question.

And certainly when I lived in Dubai, like all I wanted to do, and the internet was just kind of taking off then, was to be in Ireland on St.

Patrick's Day because it's a big holiday.

It's by comparison, your your Independence Day, your 4th of July, it's a public holiday, only essential workers and essential tourism are open, everybody takes a day off.

Um, so it is a big celebration.

But that's really changed.

When I was growing up, you guys in the States did St.

Patrick's Day from a celebration point of view, bigger than us, you know, down the rivers green, down the beer green, really.

But today it's a party, Dublin, especially, and you know, that's a lifetime bucket list for everyone.

It's like being Ireland on St.

Patrick's Day, being Dublin on St.

Patrick's Day, but any anywhere uh anywhere at all, it's a day to be in the towns because that's where the party atmosphere and the vibe is.

But yes, we've started to and we've embraced it.

It was much more, I suppose I'm giving away my age, way back into the 70s.

It was much more of a traditional religious holiday when I was a kid.

It was more about going to church and stuff where it actually came from.

And a quirky fact about St.

Patrick, your listeners may not be aware, but he wasn't Irish.

He was born, yeah.

St.

Patrick isn't Irish, and St.

Patrick isn't Irish, and St.

George, who's a patron saint of England, wasn't English.

So the story of St.

Patrick, St.

Patrick is credited with bringing Christianity to what was then pagan Ireland, and he was, we believe he was uh in Wales, which is connected to England.

So the island next door to Ireland is Britain, Great Britain, and it is Scotland, England, and Wales, and then across the Irish Sea is the island of Ireland.

So Wales is a part of Britain, separate country to England, but anyway, he was Welsh and he was, I think, kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave in a kind of as-you-do way back in that era, whatever I think we're talking in around 400 odd AD or whatever.

And um, he probably didn't have that good a time here, and then he went back to Wales eventually, and I think he had a dream or something of going back to Ireland and to bring the Irish Christianity, and that's what he did.

And he is a patron saint of Ireland to this day, he wasn't an Irishman.

SPEAKER_03: Wow, that's so crazy!

SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's a crazy fact that that ever comes up on a trivia quiz.

Another fact, actually, in terms, while we're talking holidays and the difference in the states and here, and again, one that definitely is not well very well known, but Halloween is way more Irish than you'd give it credit, which I didn't even know growing up, but it was um so all the pagan festivals obviously were around harvest and the change of season.

You think of the end of October, early November, especially this far north, is when the light is really fading and we've got misty days, and they talked about it being like the thinnest time of the year where the idea between you know the real world and the underworld was at its finest.

So the dead and stuff like that, it was the closest time of the year that there could be a connection, and so the whole festival of Halloween and scary stuff is is around that time of year.

And I believe the festival to what it is now in the States actually came largely from Irish immigrants in the 1900s, the 1800s and 1900s, and it became a huge festival in the States, wasn't much of a big deal when I was a kid, but it's increasingly becoming a really we've kind of re-imported Halloween.

And final thing on Halloween, Derry, where I went to college, so it's in the northwest, it's an hour and it's an hour and 40 minutes drive from Belfast, it's 75 miles from Belfast.

It's a small town, I think its population is about 60 or 60, 80,000.

Lovely town.

They have one of the biggest Halloween festivals on earth, right?

So if we don't get traveling till midsummer, don't let the weather put you off.

And by all means, try to get to Ireland for Halloween if you can this year.

If things open up, let's see.

But Bucket Lister, never mind St.

Patrick's Day in Dublin, put Halloween in dairy in your diary.

I promise that's going to be worth looking at.

Also, speaking of St.

Patrick's Day, just to say all of that, because it is St.

Patrick's Day today, clearly, we're still under restrictions here in Ireland.

So even we can't go to the pub today, but Tourism Ireland, if you go to their Facebook page, they are streaming live entertainment as a special way to reach out to the world on this important day for us.

And they are streaming from a pub just outside Dublin and also from a pub in Belfast.

So you'll be able to connect into that today via the Tourism Ireland Facebook page if you want to party and dream of visiting Ireland.

So that's as best as we're able to do for this year.

But I predict St.

Patrick's Day next year, because I'll be two years in a row, we will have not been able to celebrate in a traditional way.

So I'm predicting that that's going to be a good party.

SPEAKER_03: Yes.

Oh my goodness.

Wow.

So you just like you are crazy.

All I'm sitting here thinking is I hope whoever is listening that they're listening at the beginning of the day, so that when they go out to the pubs tonight, they have them some facts they can blow some people away with.

Yes.

Oh my gosh.

So awesome.

So interesting.

I love it.

Now, I have to ask you, I assume it has to be an Americanized tradition of St.

Patrick's Day, but it has always been, especially it was a big deal growing up as a kid in school.

Is if you didn't wear green, you got pinched.

SPEAKER_00: That is do you guys do that?

Yeah, that there is a a tradition of wearing green.

There's also a tradition of wearing shamrock.

So that my parents and even older generation, it would have been a more important to wear shamrock plant on your lapel.

SPEAKER_03: Okay.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we did.

It wasn't huge, it's become bigger.

We maybe would have worn like the traditional Aaron cardigans.

You know, when I was a kid, I think back to that kind of stuff.

That and the shamrock.

SPEAKER_01: And I'm just church back then.

SPEAKER_00: I have way less that today, as you can imagine.

It's much more of a party.

And but yes, wearing green and the green, there's the big um, again through Tours of Maryland, global greening, they call it.

And the last 10 years, you know, my my industry colleagues in Tours of Maryland have got every possible famous location almost everywhere on Earth now at this state that they light up green on St.

Patrick's Day.

So from the Sydney Opera House to, you know, your famous buildings and bridges all over the United States, absolutely hundreds.

It'd be hard to miss a you know, locations that are not lit green for St.

Patrick's Day.

And a lot of that is connecting to the diaspora, the Irish immigrants, the number of people, especially in the States, who can claim Irish heritage and just connecting into that identity.

And this year, more than ever before, because so many people, even just from here who you know grew up here who haven't been able to get home, in addition to people who are maybe one, two, three generations left Ireland.

That's kind of appealed to the international Irish diaspora.

So definitely look up the global greening for buildings all over the world.

It's a lovely, it's a it is an international holiday, it's one of the few truly global parties.

SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: Everyone's Irish somewhere.

So today's the day to celebrate and acknowledge that.

SPEAKER_03: Oh my gosh, that's so awesome.

I love it.

I love it.

Now, I gotta ask you a real quick question, and this is just out of my own curiosity, with all the amazing facts you have on Ireland.

Where did the whole thing about leprechauns come from?

Do you know?

SPEAKER_00: Oh gosh, a good question.

And I don't so sorry to drop the ball in the live march.

Come on, no, no, no, no, no.

They they are they're a quirky and fun story, but they also, you might not like this bit, but they also have a derogatory history.

So we a bit like yourselves, you once were governed by our good friends in England, and toward the end of 1700s, you said, Yeah, I'm not so sure about that, and um renegotiated the future.

We we've we've done that over the last 800, 900 years, but we're closer, much closer.

And so the politics, I suppose, but a little bit more patriotic.

And uh the 1800s, especially, when the British Empire was at its height and all of Ireland was governed from London, the you know, would have been a way to be derogatory toward Irish people, would be to r refer to them as leprechauns.

The point of origin of the leprechaun story, I'm sorry, let me down.

I'll have to know how far it's back.

There is a quirky and a fun side to it, but today, like there's a there's a terrific museum.

So obviously in Dublin, there's a terrific museum, which is obviously well, we know about the the Guinness storehouse, which is clearly the story of one of our most famous brands.

Um, but a more recent new, relatively new museum, I believe it's one of the best tour attractions either in Europe or the world within the last couple of years.

It's called Epic, and it's actually the story of Irish immigration.

The Irish story around the world, and their whole strap line is there's more to Ireland than leprechaun.

So that's awesome.

That's so awesome.

I'm sorry, but if I find out more about leprechauns and where the whole story of them came from, I will get back to you.

But you know, that there is a fun, and that coming back to Halloween, but you know, it's broader than just leprechauns, the stories of fairies and the underworld and mythology, that's still quite alive in Ireland.

You'll be driving in parts of the countryside and you'll see a tree in the middle of a field that is otherwise growing some crops, and you're like, Why is that tree there?

And it's a hawthorn tree, and it's a fairy tree, and it's bad luck if to this day for the farmer to cut the tree down, and they will farm land around fairy trees to this day, which is hard to believe that that's the modern world, but you can definitely see and find fairy trees.

There's um storytelling the tradition, as you can tell, Kevin.

We were all born with the gift of the gab, and without without a shadow of a doubt, the traditional storytelling is still really alive.

The glens of Antrim, which is just north of Belfast, they have a storytelling festival every year, and it's international storytellers come from all around the world to engage in that cultural experience.

So we can go there and ask about leprechauns.

SPEAKER_03: Well, it's so fast.

I absolutely I'm like such a huge fan of learning about the history, about the you know, the insider stuff of like destinations, and you know, it's just it's so intriguing to me to to experience, you know, different cultures and stuff outside of your own.

And so that's why I just absolutely am loving everything that you're talking about.

It's just so awesome.

SPEAKER_00: Thank you.

That's so great.

It's been such a lovely opportunity.

Obviously, we've had a tough year.

Your side of the industry, my side of the industry, and also visitors, people who want to travel.

So it's really lovely to be able to do as good as we can for now, and that's these opportunities.

So I I can't wait.

I miss my job.

I really love it.

It you know, I've really designed the dream job that allowed me to live in Ireland and and still travel.

I brought abroad to me, and uh I cannot wait.

I tell you, the first American visitors on tour for me, I'm gonna have to apologize.

It could be hugging, and hopefully, hugging will be allowed.

There might be tears.

It'll be an emotional day when when it's back.

It really will.

SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, absolutely.

Well, oh my goodness, I want to thank you so much for being on the podcast today.

This is such an amazing opportunity to get to speak with you, to have this, like I said, especially just how the timing worked out that this is being released on St.

Patrick's Day.

And it just really means a lot to me for you to take the time to be on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Kevin.

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03: Of course, thank you.

Hey guys, this is Kevin.

I just wanted to pop in real quick.

Oh my goodness.

So if you're not already thinking that you want to go to Ireland, then you obviously are crazy because me, I'm already there, baby.

Let me tell you what.

So I hope you enjoyed today's episode.

Don't forget to check out the show notes.

I've left some awesome information in there.

Emer was awesome enough to grant me with some cool links to articles on leprechauns and other cool little information on Ireland.

And so we've left that in the show notes.

And of course, if you're enjoying that podcast, please consider leaving a review.

And depending upon what app you're listening on, don't forget to hit either that subscribe or follow button.

SPEAKER_02: Until next time, I hope you have don't forget to button on like subscribe for more.