Review of 2017 in Bundoran
It’s been another busy year in Bundoran with lots of events happening and lots of guests coming to visit! Tourism Officer Shane Smyth looks back with his Review of 2017!
January started as it traditionally does with the launch of our new 48 page brochure in Bundoran Community Centre. In fact the launch was the very first event ever to be held in the new centre which had been officially opened just a few weeks previously.

No sooner is the brochure launched than the first major event of the year takes place – the annual Transatlantic Connections Conference at the Atlantic Apartotel.
Then it was time to start getting the word out about our new brochure! We hit the road to exhibit at the annual Holiday World shows in Belfast’s Titanic Exhibition Centre and Dublin’s RDS Simmonscourt. Here’s Shane’s vlog from the weekend in Belfast.
We also brought the new brochure to the new holiday show at University of Limerick Sports centre in February where Shane bumped into an unusual character!

The annual Cara Bundoran Challenge took place from 10-12 March and had 2418 finishers over the weekend. Here’s the highlights of the main event on Saturday 11th March with thanks to Daimon Fergus and Louis Moran for the aerial footage.
St Patrick’s Day brought a lot of rain but didn’t stop thousands of people from coming out to view the annual parade! We broadcast the parade live on Facebook and it was viewed by thousands all around the world!
March also saw a visit from the French Ambassador to Ireland, His Excellency Jean-Pierre Thébault where he met with members of the tourism trade and the Douzelage Town Twinning Committee.
Easter weekend brought our annual Easter Egg Painting Competition

In association with Bundoran Douzelage Town Twinning Committee and Bundoran Community Centre, we celebrated Europe Day on Tuesday May 9th. Megan Gallagher took the photos below!
As we mentioned above, Bundoran is part of Douzelage – the European Town Twinning organisation and we have a twin town in every country in Europe! On the trip to the general meeting this year in Bad Közting in Germany, Tourism Officer Shane Smyth vlogged his experience and you can watch it below!
As the year moved on, we looked forward to the arrival on Tuesday May 23rd of the Irish and International cyclists as part of the An Post Rás – stage 5 of which was finishing in Bundoran. The day’s stage was won by Irish man Matthew Teggart.

As our review of 2017 continues we get to June which brings the annual Sea Sessions Surf And Music Festival with the Coronas headlining on the Saturday night. Check out the highlights below!

We pointed our camera at the sunset on July 17th.
As we got into the second half of 2017 we were looking forward to our annual Street Party and Vintage & Classic Car Show which happened over the weekend of 22/23 July. Check out the video highlights below!
September was a special month historically for Bundoran as we commemorated the 60th anniversary of the closure of the railway in Bundoran. The month was designated as Railway Heritage Month with the Railway Heritage Festival taking place from the 29th of September to 1st October. The anniversary itself was marked on the 30th of September with a special plaque unveiling at 2:30pm at the time the last train departed on the same date in 1957.
Another of our annual traditions is the pumpkin carving competition and pumpkin parade which happened on Halloween in 2017. This was the fifth year of the event and by far the biggest. You can check out the highlights below.
As we got closer to Christmas we were looking forward to the annual Nathan Carter Christmas Concert at the Great Northern Hotel. Ahead of the gig, Tourism Officer Shane Smyth sat down with Nathan to talk to him about his busy year, Christmas and what concert goers could expect from his show.
The annual Christmas Quiz took place in the Chasin Bull on December 23rd raising money for Ozanam House. This is always a huge night and this year was no exception! Well done to the top 3 teams who are pictured below with quizmaster Tiernan Brady!

Christmas Day Swim
A massive crowd turned out for the annual Christmas Day swim at Main Beach – check out the pictures below!
And finally… here’s everything wrapped up into two and a half minutes!