St, Mary’s hospital in Castleblayney was the local Charity supported on the day with a donation being made to is Lorgan Unit.We were delighted that we raised €1500 for the Alzheimer unit at the hospital. The lads would like to thank all sponsors and everyone who helped made the first Irish Bog Snorkelling Championships a huge success.We have penciled in September 11th next year at Alices Loft & Cottages for the 2nd Irish Bog Snorkelling Championships.
In conversation with SANDRA O’CONNELL
This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
DECLAN CONNOLLY: I START WORK in a food manufacturing plant at 5.30am and finish up at 2.30pm. It means I have to get up at 5am, but that’s fine because it leaves me the rest of the day to run my self-catering business.
It began when an aunt, Alice, gave me a field next to her to build on when I got married. She died a year later, at 93. People said she was waiting for the next generation to be on the land before passing on.
First we turned her cottage into a holiday home, then an adjacent stables and loft, and then, a few years later, built three new self-catering houses.
Once I get home from the day job, I put my tourism hat on. Most of my business comes from people with Monaghan connections. I get a lot of bookings from people who emigrated to the UK and want to visit relatives, but not stay with mam and dad.
The first thing I do when I get home is check bookings on e-mail and give people directions. Then I’ll head over to the houses to make sure the cleaning is done properly. I leave a welcome pack of tea, milk, butter, brown bread and jam, and turn on the heating.
I like to be there for the meet and greet, to show people where everything is, then leave them to it.
In the evening I’ll head to the computer and begin marketing. I did a course on search-engine optimisation three years ago, and before that I had a zero rating on the Google rankings.
Now, if you key in fishing or golfing in Monaghan, I’m up the top of the first page. The result is we’ve been busier and busier. So each day I spend an hour optimising each web page and generating e-mail marketing campaigns.
The other thing I work on is the Irish Bog Snorkelling Championships. I was looking out at the rain one day while on the phone to a friend, and told him that even the bog was flooded. He said I should look up “bog snorkelling”, so I did.
I found that there were championships in Northern Ireland and in Wales, but none here.
In January I got into the bog in my tracksuit – I didn’t even have a wetsuit at the time – with flippers and snorkel. My son posted it on YouTube and the response was amazing. Before we knew it we had 48 competitors, including a hen party from the UK. It was the most amazing weekend’s crack and it really put us on the map.
I’ll finish up on the computer and head to bed by about midnight. It means I only get five hours’ sleep, but sure I catch up at the weekends.
In conversation with SANDRA O’CONNELLThis article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times
Celebrated this momentous occasion in Watter’s ‘Old Coach Inn’ at exactly 17.59.
Still tastes as good as ever.
Alice’s Loft & Cottages, Doohamlet, Castleblayney, Co.Monaghan was the setting on Saturday last were the current world record for Bog Snorkelling was smashed twice .The record with stood at 1:38 was broken firstly by Casey Squibb from Dorset, England who covered the 120 meter course in 1:33. Casey who was the Bride to be on her Hen party was just 1 second short on her first attempt of breaking the record and her determination on her second attempt carried her through. The world record was then broken again when Connor Murphy from Portadowm in Co. Armagh covered in course in 1:29.Both attempts were recorded and forwarded to the Guinness Book of Records where hopefully we will see the Irish Bog Snorkelling Championships being written into History.
John Mc Keown of Lookaroundireland and co-organiser of the event was trilled with the day and said “Having saw the world record broken twice was the icing on the cake for us and would like to commend both record breakers for their fantastic times. The Hen party from Dorset were great craic over the weekend and together with the great weather it made our first championships s fantastic success.”
Declan Connolly of Alice’s Loft & Cottages Self-Catering and the other half of the team was equally trilled “After the success of today we are now planning next years event and hope to make it bigger and better”.
The snorkellers finished the day at Watters, Old coach Inn where the winners were presented with their trophies, certificates and prizes. Each competitor received a specially designed T-Shirt and a certificate with their time. The men’s and ladies winners received a weekend for two at the Smarmore Castle.
St, Mary’s hospital in Castleblayney was the local Charity supported on the day with a donation being made to is Lorgan Unit. The lads would like to thank all sponsors and everyone who helped made the first Irish Bog Snorkelling Championships a huge success.
The Irish Bog Snorkelling Championships we delighted to announce Shane long of The Franciscan Well Brewery as the main sponsor orf the event.
Shane was delighted to come on board after seeing our site and be part of what has the potential to be a major annual event.The Brewery based in Cork combines age old traditions with modern technology to produce a range of classic beers.This micro-brewery is hoping to expand to the north-east and Shane expects the lads event to raise its profile.
Check out our official launch on our Bog Snorkeling page.
Smarmore Castle have just sponsored two great prizes for the winners of the Ladies and Men’s competition in our inaugural Irish bog Snorkelling championships.The first prize in each category is 2 nights B+B for 2 at the Castle ,which is one of the oldest in the northeast .Check them out on www.smarmore.com
We took the oportunity to do some training when we were there ,some call it altitude training and what can i say, done 120 laps and relaxed in the jacuzzi after .Check out the photos.
We had a different booking last weekend with the Glanza Enthusiast’s rallying at Alice’s loft & Cottages .16 cars from Ireland and the UK stayed for the weekend and had a great time.Local organiser Aidan Kerr said “We picked Alice’s Loft & Cottages because of the parking,each house also had a B_B_Q and the fact the we had no neighbour’s to0 annoy with the noise of the cars was a bonus “.
The weekend was a great success and the Glanza lads have pencilled in a return in October.
On Monday 5th we took part in the May Day Parade and introduced our Bog Snorkelling Championships to the town.We had a great response with loads of locals pledging support ,even the local Gardai on Duty were taken in by the uniqueness of our event .We passed out flyers to the public and gave some technioques to the viewing stand.Check out the photos and the tight fitting suits.Ladies beware !!!!!
We had another first at Alices Loft & Cottages on Easter Weekend with particiipants in the Circuit of Ireland Rally.Kevin Bradley and his crew based themselves with us for the Branbridge Stage and Service stop at Newry.Kevins Mark 11 ,2 litre escort was on show and the locals lads had quite a treat.It would have brought back memories i,m sure for anyone who used to drive one.I fitted into that catagory but wasnt near as powerfull.Just to hear these cars warming up in the morning would ensure no quiet sleep in .
Kevin and his supporters also had a Camper Van which pulled up at the side of the houses and was great to see this new activity at Alice’s loft & Cottages,something for all of us Cavan / Monaghan tourism providers to think about for next year !!!!!
I are delighted to hear that Talktourism.ie has been shortlisted in the ‘Online Tourism Award’ category of the Irish Internet Association and Enterprise Ireland Net Visionary Awards 2009. Please support by voting on http://www.iia.ie/net-visionary/vote/25 . Further details and links can be found on the site by following this link; http://www.talktourism.ie/forum/showthread.php?t=544#1 This site is so valuable to tourism and John does such a great job on it he deserves all the awards he can get for it. Get voting please
My own personel opionion is that Talk Tourism is the out-right winner as it has achieved its position on the area of WEB2.0 on a small budget unlike Gilliver etc and has the average beginner actively posting and contributing on a regular basis .Talk Tourism is far ahead of our National Bodies with regards to whats the most up to date in web optisisation and continues to lead the field.Well done John.
9 °C MON
12 °C YOUR WEATHER »
