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Dear Members

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New Committee Members:

This is an immediate call to action where we need new members for the Committee. As we evolve over time so too does your Committee. For various reasons, some of the current Committee will be retiring or changing Committee roles at the end of this year. That makes it imperative we recruit new committee members and you would be most welcome to join us in 2026.

We meet monthly, usually the last or second last Monday in the month from 11.30am to 1pm. Thanks to Letitia Pollard, we have access to a meeting room in the RDS for three meetings a year and thanks to Fáilte Ireland’s support, through Mary White initially and now extended by Sharon Balmaine, we have the use of a meeting room in the Amiens Street office. There is secure and complementary car parking at both venues and easily accessible by public transport. However, what is not covered in any Minutes are the discussions that follow afterwards over lunch and a glass of wine. The Committee works on a voluntary basis and our reward is the lovely feedback we get from you, our appreciative members.

While the destination venues of our regular outings are always as enlightening and enriching as they are enjoyable, it is you the participants who give us so many anecdotes, highlights and special memories. Your stories in the coach or over a coffee break or lunch always strengthen our bonds of connection and friendship that Ireland’s Tourism continue to give us well into retirement. We may have left the job but we haven’t left the industry. I don’t know of many companies where the retired continue to enjoy and maintain an ongoing engagement with the industry that employed them. Your Fáilte Tourism Retired Association is remarkable in that respect and continues to pay tribute to that emotional connection and immersion in Ireland’s Tourism for over twenty-five years.

As the year approaches the grand finale towards Christmas and starts to draw a curtain over the year, we find ourselves reviewing the past months since January and begin to wonder about what the next year will bring, lessons learnt and gratitude for being here to wonder.

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Review of 2025:

On behalf of your Committee, our thanks to the many of you who joined in our day trips and outings. For those who were unavailable to attend, you can be with us in spirit by viewing the many photos capturing each event and on view on our website: www.ftra.ie just click on the Past Events tab.

Here is a recap of the events we remember with pleasure:

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• After an exceptional Lunch at La Cave, Dublin’s oldest wine bar, we walked the short distance for a guided tour of a fraction of the two million artefacts in the archaeological collections alone at the National Museum on the 7th February. Organised by our now much-loved former Treasurer, Carmel Hanley, with support by your Chairperson. So many highlights transcending the millennia and one “I never knew that” fact was that Ireland has one of the largest collections of pre-Christian gold artefacts in the world, (in a trading island that had hardly any of its own gold to mine).
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• What an absolute joy it was to see so many members, including some of our original and founding members at our Silver Anniversary Lunch at the National Yacht Club (NYC) on 11th March to commemorate our twenty-five years. Our two honorary guests were Marianne Gorman, widow of our founder Michael and Sharon Balmaine, Head of HR at Fáilte Ireland. Tourism Ireland sent their apologies with their warm wishes for our milestone event. For many of our 25 spot prizes, our appreciation to Tony Dawson for Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands’ items and to Sharon Balmaine for Fáilte Ireland’s generous €200 gift voucher for a meal at a member of the Restaurant Association of Ireland. I have spoken at wine suppers for many years at the NYC and I knew it would be a venue worthy of our special commemorative lunch. Our thanks to Carmel for managing the 80+ bookings while she was managing her own recovery.

Some of our planned events, necessarily secured by pre-booking, unfortunately didn’t proceed as they didn’t achieve the threshold number of bookings to attract the group rates. No cancellation fees were incurred though, a testament to the goodwill the industry has for the FTRA. Echoing Larry Gogan on his Just-a-minute-Quiz whenever a contestant struggled to find the correct answers, Larry would comfort them with “The questions just didn’t suit you.” For many members, the dates of 23rd April for the Wine & Cheese event and 14th-16th May’s Trip to Clare just didn’t suit.

However, the knowledge from the preparations and plans can be put to good use and revisited for future outings. Perhaps a hedonistic Wine & Cheese event during Lent wasn’t the best timing. Meanwhile, my thanks especially to your Committee member, Tom Burke for all his work and forensic knowledge in planning the three-day coach trip in Co. Clare and to Frances O’Malley for monitoring the bookings.

Meanwhile, we travelled back in time on 2nd July with our coach trip to counties Carlow and Kilkenny crafted by our expert historian Committee member, Pat Nolan and bookings managed by Sheelah Kehoe. Who knew that Old Leighlin Cathedral was one of the foremost monastic houses in Leinster, with no less than 1,500 monks in residence? Or, that in 630AD it was the location for a crucial church synod which determined the date of Easter, resolving what was then a major issue for the entire Celtic Church? We were privileged to have Dean Canon Máirt Hanley give us a personalised tour. In the afternoon, we swapped architecture from cathedral to castle with a visit to Shankill Castle, which is currently the home and studio of Elizabeth Cope, artist and author. Elizabeth introduced us to the many-sided history of this famed house, gardens and estate. The trip was topped and tailed at The Lord Bagenal Inn for morning coffee and scones and a late afternoon lunch before returning home at the Seven Oaks Hotel, Carlow.

We always skip August for outings because of peak prices and reduced availability. To reward the wait, we had a packed itinerary on 17th September for you. We recalibrated Euros to Sterling and kilometres to miles with a coach trip up North. We visited the ecclesiastical capital of this island, Armagh, a city with two cathedrals, one Roman Catholic and the other Church of Ireland, so we were doubly blessed. Organised by your Committee member, Brenda King and supported by Letitia Pollard, the full day in Armagh included our cultural, historical and scientific heritage.

At Archbishop Robinson Library, founded 1771 where Carol Conlin had selected interesting treasures from the rare books including a first edition of Gulliver’s Travels with b>Jonathan Swift’s handwritten notes. After lunch in the Cathedral Musick Hall provided by Embers Restaurant we visited St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Cathedral, a spiritual landmark and the believed burial place of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, traces its origins to 445AD. This followed a Dome Show at the Planetarium and a guided tour nearby of the Armagh Observatory.

One of Europe’s oldest working observatories and Ireland’s premier space education centre, it has kept continuous weather records since 1795, making it Ireland’s longest-running climate monitoring station. A comfort stop at Castlebellingham Applegreen en route back to Dublin.

On 15th October we went to the seat of power, a conducted visit to Leinster House. Originally, the town house and home in the 18th century of the Duke of Leinster, Ireland’s most powerful politician. That power transcended time and Leinster House is home to our seats of parliament with both Houses of the Dáil and the Senate. The guide gave background stories on the many portraits on view. However, the portrait of Michael D Higgins in the entrance hall has now moved up to the Áras as only the current president is in Leinster House during their term. Organised by your Committee members, Pat Nolan and bookings managed by Sheelah Kehoe. The visit was kindly facilitated by the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Mr John McGuinness TD. There was no charge to full members for this outing and many attendees repaired to Kilkenny on Nassau Street for refreshments and chats afterwards.

A perennial favourite is an afternoon concert at the National Concert Hall (NCH) followed by an always excellent lunch in the Iveagh Room. In the past, neither snow nor public transport disruptions deterred members from attending. This year’s outing on 7th November was different, as there was no snow or transport disruptions. Your Committee member, Sheelah Kehoe managed the bookings for the concert with Lunch. Members enjoyed a very enjoyable selection of arias, duets and ensembles from a number of popular operas and operettas. The established and familiar artists Sandra Oman soprano, Simon Morgan baritone and David Wray piano were joined by two TU Dublin Conservatoire emerging talents, Cliodhna Regan soprano and Edward Finegan tenor. It was exciting to witness Cliodhna and Edward commencing their careers following their performances at the Wexford Festival Opera and now at the NCH.

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AGM & Attendees’ Christmas Lunch Thursday, 4th December 2025

It is time to celebrate our grand finale of the year with our best attended event, your Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Christmas Lunch for the attendees afterwards. We return to a hotel that has looked after us so well for years – The Herbert Park Hotel, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. Please see full details with the timings, Agenda and directions in the accompanying Notice. Pre-booking for the AGM is essential, otherwise for any non-booked attendees remaining on for the Christmas Lunch, better bring sandwiches because the hotel won’t have known to prepare a lunch for you.

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Reminder: Email address

Some of us are creatures of habit, myself included. Please resist using the old and now defunct email address and commit to memory: failtetourismretired@gmail.com

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Festive Beverages:

Wearing my wine writer’s hat, I have been engaged for the second year by Irish Independent Newspapers to write their four-page drinks and gifts section in their annual Christmas magazine, Mistletoe. The magazine will be included in the Friday 21st November edition of the Irish Independent. Outlets for the 31 drinks featured nationwide are at Aldi, Dunnes, Avoca, SuperValu, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Lidl.

Meanwhile, on behalf of all your Committee, we look forward to seeing many of you next month at our AGM; and for those who can’t attend, we send you our best wishes.

Warmest regards

Liam Campbell
Chairperson – FTRA