Reeling in Bundoran – 2017
Bundoran 2017 – the year of the An Post Rás, commemorating the railways and living in the coolest place on the planet! As usual we remind you that this is not a comprehensive retrospect of everything that happened – just a few memories which we hope you enjoy.
1st January…
2017 started off really well for one lucky lottery player as American House sold a ticket worth €250,000! Read more here
Brochure launch.
Our 2017 brochure was launched in the newly opened community centre on the 9th of January. The cover image was a striking one captured by Peter Maine from Strabane of his nephew Aaron at the Diving Boards the previous August. read more about the brochure launch here
We were back at Holiday World with our new brochure and had a visit from Bundoran’s Cormac Meehan (then president of the ITAA) and his wife Maureen – pictured below with Iga Lawne of Donegal Tourism, Sheila Russell of Harvey’s Point, Barney McLaughlin of Donegal Tourism, Marion Fitzgerald of Brian McEniff Hotels and Shane Smyth, Discover Bundoran.
Home away from home for Westlife’s Mark.
We found out in February 2017 that Westlife’s Markus Feehily had a particular fondness for Bundoran as he changed his twitter header to a photo of him taken on our Main Beach. The image remained there for some time!
The An Post cycle race was launched in the GPO in Dublin on February 14th. Tourism Officer Shane Smyth is pictured below with former An Post cyclist and Donegal man Ronan McLaughlin. Read more here
Serving up some Hop House 13
A bit of excitement on March 5th as a film crew took over Brennan’s Criterion Bar on Main Street to film the now “infamous” Hop House 13 TV spot “We’re surfing fans but we don’t surf…”
The ad still screens to this day in the Guinness store at Dublin Airport!
Local support for a national campaign.
Three Bundoran footballers made it to Croke Park on the 8th of December to help the RNLI launch their Respect The Water partnership with the GAA. Pictured in their kits at Headquarters were Paul Delaney, Ferghal McKiernan and Niall Dunne.
Cara Run
Another record crowd for the Cara Bundoran Run on 11th March. Check out the highlights below!
Check the image gallery here:
Live from Bundoran – this is St Patrick’s Day!
In a first for the town and the event, the 2017 St Patrick’s Day parade was broadcast live on Facebook.
Viewers tuned in from all over the world!
By the end of March the weather had cleared up and we had this wonderful sunset on the 26th!
National coverage
2 days later on March 28th, local photographer John Carver’s stunning photo appeared on the 3e Weather Forecast.
French VIP
We were honoured on March 27th to receive His Excellency Jean-Pierre Thébault, Ambassador to France who was keen to find out more about our Douzelage Town Twinning Organisation and our links with French town, Granville.
It’s not often the French tricolour flies from the bridge!
Thanks to Conor Conlon of CMP Productions for taking the photos:
Celebrating Europe
In a further European nod, we celebrated Europe Day on May 9th with a live broadcast and European activities at the Community Centre. And cake. Lots of cake.
Eurovision star Mickey Joe Harte joined Francie Boylan live on air from Bundoran.
Check out more images here:
Race time
As we eluded to earlier, the An Post Rás was set to return to Bundoran on May 23rd and what an exciting day it was!
The next morning we saw them off again!
All pics – INPHO
Blue Flag
The Blue Flag was once again awarded to Bundoran’s Main Beach. It is presented to Tourism Officer Shane Smyth by Clean Coasts’ Beckey-Finn Britton. This was the 30th year in a row the flag was awarded! Read more here
The Wheel arrives.
A new addition to the Bundoran landscape for the summer months landed in 2017 – the massive ferris wheel at Bundoran Adventure Park.
A few days later Sea Sessions was underway with headliners Sigma, The Coronas and Primal Scream.
The street party took place on Saturday 22nd July on Main Street
Check out more images from it and the car show the following day below
We get surfers from all over the world coming to test our waves… even from landlocked Switzerland.
We’re cool!
In 2017, National Geographic Traveller magazine declared Donegal as the Coolest Place on the Planet. After much celebrating we managed to convince them to come a do a feature on us! Anthony from Bundoran Surf Co put journalist Zoe McIntyre through her paces! You can check out the supplement here
Mother of God… it’s the fella himself.
Actor Adrian Dunbar (Line of Duty – Ted Hastings… fella) dropped by the tourist office to tell us about a performance of Homer’s Odyssey he was directing on Tullan Strand on 24th of August. And he didn’t float up the Lagan in a bubble either you know. He is pictured here with Tourism Officer Shane Smyth and Micheal McMahon.
The performance took place in a tent on a blustery Tullan Strand. It even made the Six One News later that day – you can see clips from that in the highlights package at the bottom of this blog.
Daniel’s Selfie
On August 26th the legendary Daniel O’Donnell played the Great Northern Hotel. Here he is pictured with Mary Duff and his legions of fans! Pic – Matt Britton.
Surf champ
The Irish National Surfing Championships took place on the 24th of September with young Gearoid McDaid being crowned as Irish national surfing champ for 2017!
Any excuse for a festival!
What started off at the end of 2016 as a passing comment that 2017 would be the 60th anniversary of the closure of the railway in Bundoran, led to a full weekend of festivities and commemorations with a ceremony marking the very moment the final passenger train pulled out of Bundoran on Monday 30th September 1957. The plaque below was unveiled on the wall of the current cinema building where the train station once stood.
RTE’s Nationwide filmed on the day and the piece was broadcast in January 2018 which you can see in our 2018 blog!
A History Ireland Hedge School was recorded on the same weekend – you can listen to it here
Read more about the weekend here and see photos below
The Scots are coming!
The revived Celtic Cup Surf Competition took place in Bundoran in November 2017 between the Irish national surf team and the Scottish national surf team. Team Ireland won out the event and you can read more about it here
Festival of the Year
At the Excellence in Local Government Awards held in Dublin on the 23rd of November, Sea Sessions was announced as 2017 Festival of the Year
Ask Nathan
We went live with Nathan Carter from the Slieve Russell Hotel, a week before he appeared at the Great Northern Hotel. We talked Bundoran and more!
Watch it here
The Christmas Day crowd gets bigger
Check out the rest of our decades blogs here:
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