Inishowen is open for business as usual

When Inishowen Cathaoirleach, Councillor Nicholas Crossan, became the first independent elected Association of Irish Local Government (AILG) President, he was determined to hold the organisation's spring conference in his home town.

AILG is a representative body made up of 949 councillors from the 31 local authorities in Ireland.

Cllr Crossan's plan has come to fruition. Today, more than 300 councillors, from every county in Ireland, will descend on Buncrana for the AILG President's Conference 2022, in the Inishowen Gateway Hotel.

The keynote speakers at the event include: Peter Burke TD, Minister for Local Government and Planning; Caroline Creamer, Director of the International Centre for Local and Regional Development; Brendan O'Keeffe, Research Associate with the International Centre for Local and Regional Development; and Cllr Nick Killian, AILG Vice President.

Donegal County Council will be represented by Anne Marie Conlon, Head of Economic Development and Eunan Quinn, Senior Planner. In addition, former RTÉ correspondent, Ciaran Mullooly, a Community Development and Social Enterprise worker with Roscommon LEADER Partnership, will address the conference, which starts at 7.00pm this evening.

Speaking to Inish Live, an upbeat Cllr Crossan said it was going to be a good business couple of days for the town, in terms of accommodation and hospitality and retail.

Cllr Crossan said: “Accommodation wise, Buncrana will be full. Inishowen Gateway, Harbour Inn and Lake of Shadows are all booked out and this will trickle down to B&Bs and Airbnbs.

“We will also be showcasing Buncrana and won't this beautiful weather help? The AILG councillors have been here before on two or three different occasions. They like Buncrana as a venue. It is a lovely spot to come to and the social life is good as well. Visitors can get out for a beer at night or go to a restaurant.

“All in all, it is going to be a great conference. We are going to be discussing villages and towns, how they were impacted by Covid-19 and Brexit and how we are going to rejuvenate them. For example, Anne Marie Conlon will be speaking about the project on which she is focused at the minute, embedding Donegal County Council's Remote Working Strategy. This will see Donegal making the most of the benefits the growth in remote working is bringing to the county.

“It will also be interesting to hear the contribution of Caroline Creamer from the International Centre for Local and Regional Development. Caroline is a qualified town planner and for the past 18 years she has worked in a research and management capacity on a number of EU funded projects in the areas of urban regeneration, spatial planning, multi-level governance and community participation,” said Cllr Crossan.

The first thing Cllr Crossan said he was looking forward to doing this evening was welcoming his councillor colleagues and the keynote speakers to Donegal, particularly his home-town of Buncrana.

He added: “It is a great honour for me as AILG President to welcome people to Donegal from every county in Ireland.

“It will be an opportunity for them to experience Buncrana, indeed the whole of Inishowen and greater Donegal. We have a lovely setting here and Donegal is now open for business as usual.

“We have great accommodation here and it is reasonably priced. We are only two and a half hours from Dublin. There is a perception out there that Donegal is very, very far away. But, as I said to someone recently, 'Far away from where?'

“We are 10 minutes from the fourth biggest city in Ireland, Derry, and an hour and a half from the second biggest city in Ireland, Belfast. We are actually closer to Dublin than West Cork or South Kerry. The President's Conference will also be a great opportunity for us to show off out fabulous coastline. If you take, for example, counties like West Meath and Carlow and Kilkenny, they are all land-locked, where people might never see the sea from one year's end to the next.

“They will just love the coast and in Buncrana and Inishowen. We have everything to offer, we have the sea, the scenery, we have every natural amenity here and I am looking forward to welcoming everyone to Buncrana,” concluded Cllr Crossan.