Cathedral Quarter: Tour-guiding and Letterkenny's blog potential

Over the last two months, I have been completing an Open College Network Northern Ireland Level II in Tour Guiding at North West Regional College in Derry. It has been one three-hour class a week that, once completed, I will be qualified to give short guide walks.

With a bit of luck, I can progress onto Level Three next year and once completed, I will be suitably qualified to give one-hour guide walks and bus tours. These qualifications will help to professionalise the Cathedral Quarter Jaunt, which is a short tour of the area that talks about the past, present and the future.

I also recently met with Failte Ireland officials, which provided an opportunity to explore ideas, receive expert guidance, and discover the supports available to help you grow or diversify into the tourism sector. The meeting went well and we are certain that ‘The Jaunt’ can be developed so it will provide a revenue stream for our organisation. If support from Failte Ireland is forthcoming, we expect other state agencies like POBAL will also start to support us. Because for the last twelve years, they have proved to be as useful as a ‘Chocolate fireguard’.

Bloggers Reviews
In September this year, the Travel Blogger Exchange (TBEX) held its European Convention in the ATU Donegal here in Letterkenny. As a TBEX extra event, we, in association with the Letterkenny CDP and the Elusive Theatre, put on the Cathedral Quarter Experience for the bloggers.

Since then, a number of TBEX bloggers have posted reviews of Donegal on their own websites. We were delighted to see that both Avrex Travel from Canada and Portuguese bloggers Passaporte No Bolso wrote about the Experience.

Passaporte No Bolso wrote on their website: “They portrayed figures who shaped Letterkenny’s history, from religious leaders to notable names in local commerce and culture. Each appearance brought a story, a curious fact, or a memorable episode, always delivered with humour and emotion. The experience is part of the Cathedral Quarter, a project aimed at bringing new life to this historic area and connecting the community with its roots. The actors are from Elusive Theatre, and the result is a perfect blend of theatre and local history.”

I have mentioned several times that the Cathedral Quarter Experience has the potential to make people’s stay in Letterkenny more memorable. But the Elusive Theatre and the actors need funding and support. If this happens, more and more bloggers will be writing about their stay in Letterkenny.

AGM
Our committee recently held our last monthly meeting of the year, as we don’t have a meeting in December. Plus, we all work hard throughout the year, and we have a deserved night out for committee members for Christmas. But one of the items on the agenda for the November meeting was changing the date of our Annual General Meeting.

We have decided to hold our AGM in early March as opposed to later in the year. Hopefully, this will help us attract new members to help with the development of the Cathedral Quarter. At the same committee meeting, we discussed other things that we have ambitions to do more. But the simple fact is, while our committee remains small in number and with limited resources, we won’t be able to deliver on all our aims.

A central tenet of our project has always been that we are not worried about your place of origin, but if you live in and around Letterkenny, you are more than welcome to play your role in the development of the Cathedral Quarter.