{"id":607036,"date":"2026-08-28T08:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607036\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T08:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T08:10:10","slug":"the-gathering-tourism-initiative-winds-down-after-more-than-a-decade-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/607036\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gathering tourism initiative winds down after more than a decade \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gathering, the 2013 government-backed effort to boost Irish tourism in the wake of the financial crash<\/a>, has finally been wound down after a decade. <\/p>\n

The company behind the initiative<\/a> that targeted the Irish diaspora had been dormant since 2013 but was maintained by F\u00e1ilte Ireland<\/a> in case it was needed again. <\/p>\n

The most recent company accounts for the project show the board of the national tourist State agency finally agreed last March to wind up the company. <\/p>\n

In 2011, the Government set up a forum designed to try to restore Ireland\u2019s reputation and boost its economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. The Global Irish Economic Forum at Dublin Castle<\/a> produced the idea for The Gathering, a F\u00e1ilte Ireland proposal to run a big year-long tourism campaign to persuade those living abroad with Irish connections to visit the country. <\/p>\n

The project was adopted and supported by the government and, in 2012, a company representing the project was set up as a subsidiary of F\u00e1ilte Ireland. <\/p>\n

The government set The Gathering a target of attracting 325,000 visitors in 2013, and gave F\u00e1ilte Ireland ring-fenced funding of \u20ac5 million in 2012 to prepare for the event followed by \u20ac7 million in funding in Budget 2013. <\/p>\n

There were at least 2,800 separate events planned across the country in 2013, with other unofficial events also understood to have been organised around the tourism initiative. <\/p>\n

Events included a special St Patrick\u2019s Day parade in Dublin in 2013, which allowed 8,000 tourists to take part in the parade. The 2013 Rose of Tralee invited 5,000 former contestants to visit Kerry as part of a special \u201cgathering of Roses\u201d. <\/p>\n

According to a December 2013 report<\/a>, final tourist numbers associated with The Gathering were between 250,000 and 275,000 and the project was estimated to have made \u20ac170 million in revenue. <\/p>\n

The project had also faced some criticism domestically. Ryanair boss Michael O\u2019Leary, believing it a rip-off of American tourists, suggested rebranding it The Grabbing. <\/p>\n

In 2013, it was suggested it might be replicated every five years, though this never happened. <\/p>\n

F\u00e1ilte Ireland continued to maintain the associated company and filed annual accounts every year. In 2024, a spokeswoman for F\u00e1ilte Ireland said \u201cthe company in question is currently dormant but it is being maintained by F\u00e1ilte Ireland should it be required in the future for any similar initiative or event.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a report on the company\u2019s financial statements for 2025, the Comptroller and Auditor General confirmed that \u201cin March 2026, the Board of the National Tourism Development Authority decided to close the company and intends to apply for strike-off from the Companies Registration Office.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gathering, the 2013 government-backed effort to boost Irish tourism in the wake of the financial crash, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[92862,72,62613,113,8936,15148,61,60,6306],"class_list":["post-607036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-banking-crisis","tag-business","tag-dublin-castle","tag-economy","tag-enda-kenny","tag-failte-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}