Heroes’ labour of love featured on RTÉ

THE collective efforts of local businesses to market the area as a perfect place to holiday will be showcased on RTÉ on Wednesday at 8.30pm.

The Local Heroes programme will feature local heroes in Killaloe and Ballina over a three-month period as part of a new series highlighting six areas throughout the country.

The amazing work that goes behind the scenes in getting a town a higher profile will be chronicled.

As part of efforts to attract more visitors to the locality, the Ballina Killaloe Business Association (BKBA) applied to take part in the programme last December.

Hosted by Joe Duffy, the programme is all about meeting individuals who are doing or plan to do something visionary to create jobs in their local communities.

Mr Duffy said, “In the midst of all the doom and gloom, it’s fantastic to see people showing real leadership in their communities and we’re delighted to give these local heroes a platform to show the difference they can make”.

This year Local Heroes will feature the stories of six inspirational Irish towns fighting back against the recession.
A huge effort went into over 70 hours of filming that took place in Killaloe and all the businesses involved can’t wait to see the programme.

BKBA chairperson Mariam O’Donovan said they couldn’t believe the amount of filming that had to take place to get a 30-minute programme.

“As we’re a voluntary group, a huge amount of time was given to the film crew as we worked with them to highlight the many local heroes that are behind the drive to make Killaloe and Ballina the place to holiday in Ireland,” she said.

She explained they decided to brand the area under the heading Love Killaloe Ballina and have a new landing page, www.lovekillaloe.ie, that showcases all the amazing offers that they have developed.

Mariam pointed out, “If you’re looking for romance, pampering, delicious food, beautiful accommodation, and great things to do with your partner, check out www.lovekillaloe.ie and find the perfect love weekend for you.”
The group launched the love weekend event in March and the finale can be seen in the programme where they even got a couple on their wedding day to take part in their inaugural ‘Tug of Love’.

The twin towns are now holding love weekends on the third weekend of every month and the next one is on May 18 to19.