Friday, October 30th 

The world is shaped by two things, the stories told and the memories they leave behind - Vera Nazarian
Tales of a Tourism Officer - Fallon Ní Ghrifín
photo of dunquin pier on the slea head drive

Hello everyone! Dia Dhaoibh!

My name is Fallon Ní Ghrifín and I am the Tourism Development Officer with the Dingle Peninsula Tourism Alliance. My job in a nutshell is to assist in promoting the Dingle Peninsula as a destination to come and stay and explore, and to support our local tourism businesses across the peninsula, which I look forward to being able to do properly in the new year when restrictions are hopefully eased and we can move beyond our 5km limit again! It is certainly a strange time to be involved in the tourism industry, and alot of my role cannot be undertaken at the moment, as no one is permitted to visit our beautiful peninsula due to Covid-19 restrictions. So, until we are permitted to welcome visitors back in a safe manner, I have decided to start a blog to bring you stories and updates from the Dingle Peninsula and hopefully keep everyone both here on the peninsula, around Ireland and overseas connected until we can meet again. 

It is wet and stormy on the Dingle Peninsula as I endeavour to write an interesting first blog post for you all. It is nice to sit down and regroup, and bring to you the very best of the area during thisquiet time. For those of you who are outside of Ireland - the entire country returned to Level 5 lockdown restrictions last week and they will last for a period of six weeks, meaning everyone is being asked to stay at home, stay within 5km of their house and to limit their social interactions. This has left the Dingle Peninsula a very quiet place for the time being! So, I will do my very best to bring a little piece of our area to you for the next few months until we can hopefully begin to welcome visitors back once again when it is safe to do so. 

a bundle of tin whistles and recorders dingle peninsula ireland

As you have probably seen in some capacity by now, our dear friend and valued member of the community, Fungie the Dingle Dolphin has been missing for almost two weeks now. Last week was a whirldwind thanks to the interest his disappearance garnered. It was amazing to see the effect that his disappearance had on people the world over - there were so many messages, stories, memories, special moments of Fungie shared with us, it was enormous to comprehend. Fungie is a very special dolphin and he has had such an immense impact on so, so many people. The love that both adults and children have for this bottlenose dolphin is incredible. The response to his disappearance is testament to his magic and very special nature. 

After reading so many of the messages that came through and seeing the international response to this missing dolphin, it's true to say that almost everybody knows someone who has met Fungie, been on a boat to see him, heard stories about him, had hopes to come to Dingle to see him....Much of my week last week was taken up with Fungie, reading news articles about him, sharing videos and pictures of him and talking to our friends and followers about him. I personally didn't realise the worldwide reach that this very special dolphin has, and it was fantastic to see so many people drawing together over one particularly loved bottlenose dolphin. I'm sure many of you have seen an article about him somewhere or other but if you would like to find out more about him, we have a page dedicated solely to him: Fungie the Dingle Dolphin. 

 

So, I have officially brought you my first story from here on the Dingle Peninsula! Although there is so much sadness and uncertainty surrounding Fungie's disappearance, the positive that has evolved from it is the response from people the world over and the countless connnections people have made with the Dingle Peninsula through the years of coming to visit Fungie. We continue to hope and pray for his safe return, or if he has embarked on a new adventure, we hope he is safe in his new waters. I am delighted to be able to share with you all the magic of Fungie I was fortunate to experience last week through so many stories and memories that were shared. I hope you all have a fantastic, safe and happy week, wherever you may be and I'll be back again next week with another very special story from the Dingle Peninsula!

Slán go fóill, 

Fallon.