The bringer of the Lord

Minister of State for Tourism, Michael Ring, this week added his support to a Clare event that will blend the Irish landscape with Irish culture for Irish tourism. Oliver O’Connell speaks to Nicola Corless about bringing the Lord of the Dance to the Cliffs of Moher

THIS September, Clare’s most famous beauty spot will host two nights of entertainment. With performances from global phenomenon Lord of the Dance, the Kilfenora Céilí Band and Finbar Fury, amongst other superb Irish musicians, an unforgettable experience is promised by those behind the event, the first of its kind at the Cliffs.
Oliver O’Connell, of MPO Promotions, has been working on organising the event for a year and a half.
“Running the concert is not the big thing but trying to convince Michael Flatley to put his brand into a field in Doolin, I have achieved that. I am chuffed with myself. He has agreed to do it and we have paid a deposit and signed contracts and it is going to happen. Everybody knows about it and everybody is talking about it because it has never been done before. You couldn’t bring Kylie Minogue up to the Cliffs of Moher or Oasis, they are the wrong type of act. You couldn’t bring Justin Bieber, you would have to keep it kind of traditional and in tune with the area and bringing Furey down, you’ll have a sort of nostalgia event from Lisdoonvarna in the 1970s,” he says enthusiastically.
This is not Oliver’s first venture in the area of event management. He was behind a performance by the The Chieftains at Ennis Cathedral in aid of Cuan an Chláir in 2009.
“We filled the cathedral at the time, 800 of those people came from 15 countries outside of Ireland so I had it in my head that if I did something else of that kind of iconic nature that people would come in for it and it is not the local market. People will travel to see events like this. We will probably end up with an awful lot more people from America and Japan and China than we will from Ireland,” he suggests.
Mr O’Connell believes the event will bring a huge cash injection, estimated at approximately €10 million, into the Clare economy.
“A lawyer from Boston rang me recently and asked me for 200 tickets. 200 of his clients want to come over to this and they want accommodation and they want golf,” he said.
“We think around 20,000 people will descend on Clare for four or five days and that they will spend anything between €400 and €500 a piece in terms of hotels or accommodation, I think they will spend more actually,” Oliver adds.
Local businesses, he says, are going to do very well out of the event and therefore, he is urging their support.
“Derek Logue of the Logue’s Hotel Group has been supportive since the beginning but we have suddenly found that there has been a groundswell of good will and the GAA want to help us. The GAA in Lisdoonvarna have been very helpful as well and this is not just an Oliver O’Connell event, this is a county event, this is something that will leave a mark on County Clare for a long time to come and I see myself as just a facilitator,” he comments.
Oliver describes Clare County Council and management at the Cliffs of Moher as “particularly forward thinking”.
“Clare County Council have been very good to us. I went to see them with the idea on day one because they own the Cliffs and they said it was a great idea. I have had nothing but co-operation from them and they are a wonderful council to work with. The people of Liscannor and North Clare have been brilliant too,” says the Doolin man.
Holding an event at the Cliffs is not without its problems, not least in terms of logistics and health and safety issues.
“Slane and Oxegen are held in fields five and six miles in from the road. We are having this on the edge of one of the busiest tourist roads in the county, 700ft above sea level,” Oliver outlines.
“If we had a hall where we could just bring in 5,000, we would have had no trouble but we have had to create everything from start to finish, transport, accommodation, staging, lighting, seating, health and safety, stewarding – I could go on,” he explains.
The learning curve, while it has been steep, has been worthwhile and the Tubber resident is already promising an “event for 2012, which is under wraps at the moment but I would say it is bigger than Lord of the Dance”.
Oliver believes high levels of personal and national debt means that there is a “paralysis of negativity” in the country’s psyche.
“If you have an idea, just get up and do it, regardless if you have the resources or not, just do it anyway. What you have to do is drag the people along with you. Everybody will be there on the night and they will say, ‘isn’t it wonderful’ but when I needed them in the beginning, it is very hard to get them on board with you. When you talk about doing something and when you actually bring it together, the dynamics change very quickly. When I mentioned this idea a year and a half ago, I got the response of ‘oh, it will be raining’ or ‘there will be a storm’. That has all changed now because it is all in place,” Oliver goes on.
“If the whole thing fell apart, I wouldn’t be embarrassed. I mean, at least I tried, it is better than doing nothing. Other people are burying their heads in the sand watching Coronation Street and Judge Judy on the television, you have to get out. You have to try things. I lost my business. I lost everything I had. I had a plant hire business. I had 35 people employed and I went out of business because nobody would pay us. I have brushed that to one side. That is yesterday’s news. I have done this under extraordinary circumstances. This would have been a challenge when times were good but I have done it now. Probably if times were good, I would not have done it. I would have gone off looking at apartments in Portugal,” he suggests.
Although his bread and butter was in plant hire, Oliver has always loved music and it is something, which he believes could drive the local economy.
“I have toured America with my own groups back in the early ’80s. I played accordion but my son, Michael, is a great piper and is well known internationally. I understand the performing arts and I know that the performing arts is the one industry in this country at this time that is generating activity if you get the right act and you promote it the right way and you do the logistics,” he says.
“The product we have in this county, it is music. We don’t use it. We don’t market it enough. We talk about it. They are talking about getting the All-Ireland Fleadh here in 2012, that would bring in about €35 million. The Willie Clancy week will make €10m or €15m, my project at the Cliffs will generate another €10m, that is €40m or €50m worth of music product and culture product in 13 months in County Clare alone. That is phenomenal,” Oliver states.
Indeed, the project has now got the backing of Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring, who said, “This sounds like a unique event in one of the world’s most spectacular places and I wish the organisers well. Tourism remains a priority for Government and hopefully, events such as this will allow Irish tourism to secure and build on the recovery in our markets and help us reach our target of a 4% growth in visitor numbers this year.”
Lord of the Dance at the Edge of the World takes place on September 1 and 2 and tickets are available on www.ticketmaster.ie.