Visitor influx expected for festival

Thousands of additional visitors are expected to descend on the Burren over the coming month as a landscape-led festival takes place.
Burren in Bloom, a festival providing information on the area’s unique landscape, will be launched this Tuesday. This year’s programme includes more than 25 separate events aimed at locals and tourists alike.
“This is the sixth year of the festival and we have now built a whole series of events around it so there is something new each week. The Burren Law School takes place over the first weekend. The second weekend has the Gregan’s Gourmet Garden Gathering, the third weekend is the Burren Marathon and last year we had nearly 1,000 people at that alone. Then, on the final weekend, we have a whole new festival this year called the Festival of the Valleys, which is a weekend of music, song, food and sporting events to celebrate Celtic and Mediterranean cultural fusion,” explained Mary Hawkes Green, one of the Burren in Bloom organisers.
“The first Burren In Bloom came out of a community meeting we had looking at how to use what is special about the area to enrich our own lives and attract other people to the area. We wanted to focus on the landscape, the unique flora and fauna of this landscape. Burren in Bloom runs for a full month because the unique flowers of the Burren are at their best in May. The gentians bloom in May, as do the orchids. The cuckoo appears then too. May is the best month to come and visit the Burren for anyone interested in the outdoors and nature,” she continued.
“For the entire month, there are non-stop free events and Ballyvaughan is alive. We are celebrating the beauty of the flowers and of our surroundings,” she added.
The festival centres around walks and talks covering topics from flowers and plants to turloughs, farming and bumblebees.
Burren in Bloom has continued to grow because of local support and, in recent years, Heritage Council grants.
“This really is the community taking a proactive approach to attracting tourists. A lot of people give their time and share their knowledge for free,” said Mary.
“Initially, tourism was the motivation for the Burren in Bloom festival. We had been looking in the college at ways the community could invigorate the local economy.
“By local people taking part in the walks and talks, they get a greater knowledge of the area and will be able to share that information with visitors who come here.
“Each year, the festival has gained certainly in terms of tourist numbers and more importantly in terms of the length of stay. Instead of coming for an overnight, they come for a number of nights. We have a lot of people who come back year on year in May because they know Burren in Bloom will be on,” Mary outlined.
Indeed, Mary hopes that this year the festival will have an even more far-reaching effect in terms of tourism as organisers hope to make available podcasts of some of the speakers.
This weekend sees the Burren Law School 2010, Power, its Uses and Abuses – A Contemporary and Brehon Perspective, take place at the Burren College of Art. This is the 17th school and this year it focuses on accountability for the misuse of political and economic power and contrasts this with the rule of law and the morality of rulers in medieval Ireland.
The opening address at the conference will be given by Alan Dukes, chairman of Anglo Irish Bank on Friday. The school will feature a variety of debates including What lessons must be learned from the misuse of economic power in Modern Ireland? with panellists including broadcaster and author Matt Cooper, Professor Brian Lucey from Trinity College’s School of Economics and Eleanor McClorey of Young Ballymun.
Saturday afternoon will see one of Spain’s leading anti-corruption prosecutors, Juan Carrau Mellado, James Hamilton, Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions and Dr Shane Kilcommins of UCC comparing Ireland’s system of tribunals of enquiry with Spain’s more vigorous pursuit of corruption through the court system.
Deputy Pat Rabbitte and senior counsel Frank Callanan will be discussing Achieving legal and political accountability for the misuse of power in Modern Ireland on Sunday afternoon, while Professors Donnchadh Ó Corráin (UCC) and Máirín Ní Dhonnchadha (NUI Galway) will be giving the early and medieval Irish perspective on the issues throughout the weekend.
Full conference details are available at www.burrenlawschool.org, while details of the Burren in Bloom 2010 programme are available at www.ballyvaughanireland.com.