Column: Staycationing - don’t underestimate the value of a céad míle fáilte - Kilkenny Live

As the school Hallowe’en mid term fades into the distance, and we all get back to work and classes, you’ve probably been asked ‘did you do anything nice over mid term?’

The mid-term break is a chance for students, especially, to stop and catch a breath after a hectic first few months of learning. But it’s also become a very popular time for families to take a break from the daily grind together. One of the nicest things to do is get away and have fun, see new places and have new experiences.

In recent years how we do this has changed, and it seems to be changing again.
I’m going back a little bit in time, but the Celtic Tiger brought with it a trend for ‘proper’ holidays at mid term time. As a more affluent society we started to go abroad, fly off on package holidays to somewhere with a bit of winter sun. Mid terms became as popular as summer time for family holidays, and, in a way, it made sense to stay at home in Ireland during the months when we had a decent chance of nice, warm weather, then fly south when we could really appreciate a sunny day.

Majorca at the end of October was a far cry from holidays for kids of the 1980s. Family and friends were the accommodation resource, spare rooms in grandparents’ and cousins’ homes were the destination, and mattresses on the floor were our beds. And we loved it. It was great fun.
But then again, so is flying south. Or even north to see the Northern Lights, or west to see the ‘States.

New sensory friendly tours launched by Smithwick’s Experience Kilkenny

Noise and light will be reduced and sensory packs will be available at reception

And then along came Covid. Once we were allowed to travel past our 2km and 5km limits holidays at home in Ireland became the thing to do. There was a huge boom in motorhome and caravan ownership and rentals, camping had a renaissance, and all over Ireland the hotel rooms that weren’t able to welcome foreign visitors were filled with Irish families.
As a country we took the Fáilte Ireland catchphrase to heart - we ‘discovered Ireland.’

And for a few years there was a happy balance in that, as people realised they could have really good holidays at home. The trend to ‘staycation’ lasted past the end of travel restrictions. Now that seems to be changing again.

I had a lovely midterm break. Striking out south from Kilkenny, I explored County Kerry for a few days. It was glorious. Storm Ciarán bypassed us, the scenery was stunning, we were well fed and, most importantly, we got a warm welcome.
It was chatting to the manager of one hotel where it was pointed out to me, however, that this midterm there were not as many Irish families around the tourist spots as in recent years. It seems we’re striking out further again. Hopefully the balance of that is people in other countries are doing the same and coming to see us.

On my travels I had the conversation every Irish person has when holidaying at home. ‘I’d get a week in Spain for the price of two nights in an Irish hotel.’ And, you know, I probably could. If I searched for a low price Spanish hotel and compared it to a ‘nice’ Irish hotel. But then I started to think about what I get with my Irish holiday. I love a foreign holiday, I love discovering new sites, tasting new food, a bit of sunshine. On my trip to Kerry though I got something else, something more. A real, warm, personal welcome.

‘Something here is rotten to the core’ - Kilkenny farm 'contamination' raised in Dáil

Independent enquiry is needed into what happened to a Castlecomer farm

For as long as I can remember the ‘land of a thousand welcomes,’ the ‘céad míle fáilte’ is what generations of Irish tourist campaigns have been based on. You experience that when your breakfast is served and the lady remembers you from last year, or when you walk into a county museum in a small town for the first time and you’re greeted like an old friend, or you go for coffee in a tourist spot and the girl behind the counter has a smile and chat and you really feel like she enjoys meeting you.

I hope when people visiting Ireland from other countries come here they feel that warm welcome. It’s special, you don’t get it everywhere. It’s the spirit of the time when holidays were spent bunking up at your cousins’ and we might not have had aqua parks or adventure zones, but we were all family.

You can’t always put a euro price on what a holiday in Ireland gives you, sometimes you have to sit back and enjoy all the ‘hidden’ extras wrapped up in that time honoured céad míle fáilte.