Shane MacGowan festival puts local area on the map
A FESTIVAL organised in Kilbarron to honour the memory of the Pogues singer and songwriter Shane MacGowan has helped in a major way to put the Nenagh municipality on the tourist map, local councillors heard at their September meeting.
Municipal Administrator Rosemary Joyce said a brochure launched at the festival earlier this month featuring details of a local trail beloved of the late famous singer had resulted in 100 emails over a single day from people all over the world seeking information on the trial.
The brochure, featuring all the spots around Lough Derg and the local areas MacGowan visited, has proved to be a universal hit. It features previously unseen photographs, donated by MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke and his sister Siobhan MacGowan.
The trail features all the local places the late singer frequented as a boy on holidays from England while staying with his mother’s people in Carney and to where he constantly returned later in life as a world renowned music star.
The brochure, featuring a self-portrait by MacGowan on its front cover, has attracted requests from the Netherlands, Spain Canada, France, Finland, the UK, Norway and several other countries. Fans of MacGowan and the Pogues are eager to get their hands on a copy, Ms Joyce informed councillors.
LOCATIONS
The trail takes in the towns of Nenagh and Borrisokane as well as villages beloved of the late singer such as Dromineer, Puckane, Carney, Kilbarron and Ballinderry and the townlands of Luska, Cloughprior, and Skehanagh. Included in the trial is the Cross of Finnoe, a location that MacGowan included in his highly popular song, the Broad Majestic Shannon.
“In terms of the tourism value of all this, a number of people have made contact informing us of their intentions to visit the area next year,” Ms Joyce told councillors.
What had been achieved by a small rural group organising a festival in Kilbarron had been “momentous”. “It is a fantastic tribute the late and great Shane MacGowan and it has the potential to grow tourism in the area. The level of interaction since the festival and since the brochure was published shows how successful this has been,” said Ms Joyce, who congratulated the committee in Kilbarron and the councillors for agreeing to help fund the festival.
Ms Joyce said the association between the late singer and the municipality had been further forged by the creation of a second public mural in Nenagh honouring MacGowan.
She said the artist Neil O’ Dwyer had done a wonderful job on the latest mural in Emmet Place, a work that really complemented his first mural in the same location.
Cllr Pamela Quirke O’ Meara said the latest mural was a real testament to the singer, while Cllr John Carroll marvelled at the international reaction generated by the brochure.
Cllr JP O’ Meara said there was now massive potential to expand the Shane MacGowan festival to include the greater Kilbarron area and the municipality itself. The two murals in Nenagh were fabulous and great attractions in the town.
Kilbarron councillor Joe Hannigan said the people of his parish did not want to keep the festival for themselves.
The opportunity now existed for groups in other locations in the municipality to organise a MacGowan event as part of next year’s festival and thereby expand the venture into a major event.
“We are delighted to hear of the response from a worldwide audience. It has been extraordinary,” said Cllr Hannigan.