Minister returns to her roots for tourism meeting

IN keeping with a long established tradition of attracting some of the country’s best known people to their AGM, Westport Tourism Organisation is delighted that the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Josepha Madigan, will be their keynote speaker at their annual general meeting on Friday next, March 23, in Hotel Westport.

Minister Madigan is, of course, no stranger to Westport as she has deep family connections with the town.

Her father, the late Paddy Madigan, lived in Killadangan for many years and went to school in Murrisk NS and the CBS in Westport. Minister Madigan’s aunt, Barbara Mayock, lives locally in Gortaroe with her husband John. Indeed, it is fitting that Minister Madigan holds the portfolio that she does given how steeped both John and Barbara are in the culture and heritage of Westport and Mayo.

The meeting will also be very significant as it will feature a presentation by Owen Hughes, the director of the Hughes Group, with responsibility for both Westport House Estate and Hotel Westport. He will outline their masterplan to preserve and promote that heritage into the future.

Minister Madigan is a qualified solicitor who practised family law for 20 years prior to her election in 2016 to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown. In November of last year, she was appointed Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

With 2018 earmarked as the European Year of Cultural Heritage, it was the perfect time to be elevated to senior ministerial status. The aim of the year is to encourage more people to discover and engage with Europe’s cultural heritage and to reinforce a sense of belonging to a common European space.

Donal O’Shea, chairman of Westport Tourism Organisation, is looking forward to welcoming all WTO members to the AGM as well as all interested members of the general public.

“This is our chance to look back at a year of some achievement and to look forward to the future with some optimism. Tourism continues to play a pivotal role in the business and social life of our community and WTO is very conscious of its unique place in Westport.

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Minister Madigan to Westport as our guest speaker next Friday. It hasn’t taken her very long to make a mark on the national scene but that would not surprise anyone from Westport who would be aware of her family background in the community.”

WTO has had a busy year in 2017, lending its support to the events of the 250th anniversary of the building of the town. The organisation donated €2,500 to a tree-planting project which will be a lasting legacy of the special year that was.

Dick Harnedy, a member of the WTO since its inception, has created, with the help of his subcommittee,18 cycle routes around Westport which have been uploaded to their website, www.westportourism.com.

Walking brochures and town maps have both been updated for 2018 and soon a new photo frame, the brainchild of Michael O’Donnell and progressed with the help of Simon Wall, architect, will be launched at the Quay.

The AGM on Friday next will commence at 7 p.m.