Tag Archives: Middle East

SHOCKING television images of the migrant crisis in Calais has spurred one Clare woman into dramatic action. A conversation at the end of last week between Inagh’s Róisín Ní Gháirbhith and a friend of hers in Cork about the situation at the French port has now turned into a national humanitarian aid convoy involving two trucks, 10 vans, two camper vans, six cars and 40 volunteers. Desperate migrants from North Africa and the Middle East have been travelling to Calais in an effort to enter the UK. Some have attempted to walk the 31-mile Channel Tunnel, while others try to stow away on trucks using the Eurotunnel or on ships travelling from the port. Others try to climb aboard the Eurostar train. Now Calais is home to large, poorly-equipped camps and an estimated 3,000 migrants, mainly men and boys, many of whom paid large sums to people smugglers to get there. “I was watching all this on television and reading …

Tourism Ireland invited a group of tour operators from the Middle East to visit Clare, in advance of attending a B2B workshop with Irish tourism companies in Dublin. The visit was organised to encourage the visiting tour operators to extend the Ireland content of their existing programmes or to include the island of Ireland for the first time in their 2015 programmes. Their itinerary included a guided tour of business and tourism attractions in North Clare, as well as Bunratty Castle. The visitors stayed at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg. Jim Paul, Tourism Ireland’s head of Australia and developing markets, said, “Tourism Ireland is delighted to bring these influential tour operators to Ireland for the annual New Markets Workshop, which provides such an important opportunity for our Irish tourism partners. Fact-finding visits like this are a valuable element of Tourism Ireland’s overall promotional effort in emerging tourism markets like the Middle East; they provide an excellent opportunity …