It’s nice to be nice to tourists, all for the benefit of Team Cork

ALONG with the natural beauty of the Irish countryside, the proliferation of castles and pints of Guinness, and the opportunity to visit real life locations that have featured in a Star Wars movie or a Game of Thrones episode, ‘friendly people’ are consistently rated as an important reason to visit our small hunk of land on the outskirts of Europe.

Whether we like it or not, we all play a part in making Ireland an attractive destination for visitors. The workers on the frontline of the hospitality trade are obviously the people who need to be the cheeriest and most welcoming to secure our ‘friendly peoples’ status, but you know yourself, it is the chance encounters with the locals on holidays that make you decide if you really like a place or not.

All this came to mind as I sat outside Goldie restaurant on Oliver Plunkett Street on Saturday evening, rejoicing in the luck of having a dinner reservation to celebrate a special occasion that coincided with one of the warmest days of the year.

The last time I ate al fresco on Oliver Plunkett Street was in Market Lane in the depths of a Covid Christmas. Wearing a lagging jacket with carefully concealed hot water bottles was de rigueur for an office Christmas lunch back then.

Watching people strolling around town in the sunshine at the weekend was quite the contrast. I was reminded of the Italian tradition of La Passaggiata, an evening walk to take the slightly cooler air and socialise with family, friends, or neighbours.

We savoured our unbelievably-delicious-you-should-go-if-you-haven’t-already meal, pretending we had been transported to a little Italian town, and engaged in the under-appreciated practice of people watching. 

Young and old couples in their finery heading out for the night, families enjoying ice creams, teetering hen nights at risk of flight from the amount of helium balloons they were carrying... the city was brimming with life and fun.

Paying the bill, we struck up a conversation with an American couple who were sitting next to us. It started, as many good conversations do, about the weather and segued to the lack of air conditioning in their hotel and before long we knew about their 25-year-old twins, they knew about our childcare arrangements, and we were giving them tips of how to spend three weeks pottering around Ireland in a rental car.

The pros and cons of forgoing a trip to Blarney Castle for a bike ride along the Marina and lunch in Blackrock Castle were discussed.

Irish people’s friendliness to strangers is often driven by pure nosiness and curiosity, a desire to hear tales and perspectives from afar. Some of it is connected to our long history of immigration. We like to treat people as we would like to be treated ourselves when abroad.

We’ve shed the stereotype of the ‘fighting Irish’ and replaced it with the ‘friendly Irish’.

As we left the restaurant, we knew the nice people from Boulder, Colorado, had enjoyed their chat with ‘the locals’, as had we. Fáilte Ireland would be pleased.

As the summer tourism season draws to a close, I think Fáilte Ireland should run a national competition to find Ireland’s friendliest cheerleader. Categories in these new national awards could include:

Best Directions: The invention of Google Maps means most lost-looking tourists dismiss offers of assistance, so the winner of this category will probably have gone entirely out of their way to accompany a lost tourist with no roaming service to an impossible-to-find Airbnb on the side of a mountain.

Best Chat: This could be a deep and meaningful conversation with a stranger in a bar or a witty exchange with a cheeky cab driver, it just must be memorable.

Best Unsolicited Hospitality: A cup of tea from an unexpected source is always the sweetest. Maybe a fellow hiker shares a flask at the summit of a beautiful view, or the B&B owner takes pity on a late arrival because of a delayed flight and whips up a delicious toasted cheese sandwich, or a drink is offered to someone who has just found his family roots at a local graveyard.

Best Tip: A bit of insider knowledge on holidays always makes you feel like you are down with the locals. How early you must be at the Farmgate Café to nab a table for breakfast, or how visitors can get a train to the Midleton distillery to fully sample the delights, are the kind of tips that can make a good day a great one.

In my imagined national competition, tourists vote in the departure lounges of airports and ports, and if their nomination makes the prestigious finals - they get another trip back to Ireland!

I could be in with a shout for a nomination. During the summer, I gave a visitor an A4 page of food and drink recommendations for places in Cork. I could not help it; it pains me to hear of someone coming to Cork and eating in a mediocre place when they are so close to somewhere gorgeous.

I linked arms with countless Spanish students at the Céilí Cois Locha over the summer, giving them a terrible impression of the Irish dancing capabilities of the locals, but doing it with lots of encouragement.

I took photos of people on Nano Nagle Bridge to spare them pulling a muscle trying to squeeze St Finbarre’s Cathedral into a selfie.

I happily did my ‘friendly people’ bit for Team Ireland.