Council to ignore MP’s St Patrick concerns

Council to ignore MP’s St Patrick concerns

25 January 2017

AN MP’s concerns that a new “superficial” tourist strategy for the Newry, Mourne and Down area is dumbing down the St Patrick story is being ignored by council officials.

South Down MP lambasted the draft tourist strategy just before Christmas labelling it as “almost ignominious” and she called for major changes to give real weight to potential strengths of the Patrician legacy.

However, Newry, Mourne and Down Council, which commissioned the strategy from consultants, confirmed this week it will not be changing any of the document which earlier this month was formally adopted by councillors.

The document will be formally launched at a special event in Newcastle next month, signalling a new direction for tourism away from the St Patrick story and towards adventure and outdoor tourism.

The St Patrick heritage story has been, since 2005, one of Northern Ireland’s five signature projects designed specifically to boost tourism across the province — the others are Titanic Belfast, the Walled City of Derry, the Mournes National Park, which has since been ruled out, and the Giant’s Causeway.

But in a clear sign that the council believes the St Patrick story no longer carries such tourism weight, the consultants didn’t even hold a one-to-one meeting with representatives of the St Patrick Centre in Downpatrick, which last year attracted over 700 coaches to the interpretative centre.

Miss Ritchie’s reaction was scathing, describing the document as a ”missed opportunity” to capture the strengths and financial value of promoting and developing opportunities presented by Patrician, early Christian and other forms of natural and built heritage in the area.

“The new tourism document, which is in part a superficial work, documents to a great degree the value and strengths of natural resource tourism for the Mournes, the contribution and potential for development which I believe should not be in any way diminished,” she said.

“However, this development should not be at the expense of the promotion and development of St Patrick’s Country, early Christian heritage and general natural and built heritage which is in abundance in South Down due to it’s long historical association with the Vikings, the Normans and various other aspects of our long history,” she said.

Even though Miss Ritchie’s comments surprised council officials, to the extent that a count was made of the number of times St Patrick was mentioned in the strategy — 33 — they are sticking to strategy as it was originally written.

“The St Patrick story is recognised as a key strength by the council in this strategy, in addition to other key points of differentiation, such as the Mournes, and the strong provision of activity tourism product in the region,” said a council spokesman.

“There has been a huge level of investment in St Patrick as a tourism product by the council, Tourism NI and other bodies, over the past 16 years. Further work is required to ensure any future development of the St Patrick tourism product can be aligned to international market opportunities. 

“The strategy recommends preparing two visitor experience development plans. The Mourne Coast Experience Development Plan will include Downpatrick and its linkages with the coast and Lecale through the life and heritage of St Patrick, and other relevant historical accounts.

In that regard, the Council’s new Tourism Strategy aims to significantly grow the value of tourism in the region over the next five years and will align with the vision for tourism, as set out in the forthcoming NI Tourism Strategy, to grow tourism in Northern Ireland to a £1 billion export industry,” added the spokesman.