Leitrim gets snubbed in new survey but local comedian isn't having it
Tourism bosses hope for a surge of interest in the county later this month when the two-day Leitrim Gathering is held from May 23 to celebrate the county's 'diversity and richness'. Award-winning personality Katherine, 53, who is from Mohill in Leitrim, said: 'People are missing a lot. They are missing Glencar waterfall; Mohill, which is probably the capital of Leitrim; and we've got Lough Rynn. We're got great hotels. They're fantastic and we've got great people, that's the most important thing, and we have the Leitrim Gathering soon.'
The Airbnb survey claimed 82% of people in Ireland have never visited Leitrim - prompting Katherine to joke: 'How much more abuse can we take?' Katherine revealed some top features of Leitrim, including its secret four-kilometre coastline, the stunning Glencar waterfall, and famous writer and novelist John McGahern, who died in 2006.
She also joked about Leitrim, which various Census results have recorded to be the county with Ireland's smallest population, not getting its first set of traffic lights until 2016. The lights were first announced in 2003 when a council spokesperson said: "It's progress. People have to cross the road.'
When the push-button controlled lights were eventually installed on the main N4 Dublin-Sligo route in April 2004, some locals claimed they caused "havoc". But the first traffic lights in Leitrim village at Church Road, which leads to the main street, were not in place until 2016.
The 2022 Census gave Leitrim's population to be 35,199, a significant drop from the 155,000 who lived there at the time of the 1841 Census, but famine and lack of employment decimated the county's figures amid emigration. The remaining friendly locals joke with visitors that the county is so vast it is divided into north and south.
Those in north Leitrim are close to Donegal and Sligo, while south Leitrim residents can feel more in the midlands, neighbouring Longford. Some say Carrick on Shannon is the capital of the south and Manorhamilton is the capital of the north. Katherine, who is a great niece of renowned poet Patrick Kavanagh, has had a series of TV hits, including her 2008 RTÉ Two show Katherine Lynch's Working Girls.
She told presenter Oliver Callan on RTE Radio 1 earlier this week: 'We were the last place to get traffic lights and we were the last place to get full phone numbers [on the home landlines]. We only had three digits until then. Leitrim is a great place. We have such fantastic things to see. We have Drumshanbo, the home of gin. It is the most fantastic gunpowder gin you can taste and Carrick on Shannon is a great place and Dromahair is beautiful. We've got everything.'
Katherine, who is appearing on Sunday in The Roast of Panti Bliss at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, added: 'We have a great coastline. It's gorgeous at Tullaghan. It's really pretty.' The beautiful sandy beaches of Tullaghan stretch for four kms (2.4 miles) between Donegal and Sligo.
Katherine also highlighted the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Ballinamore Theatre, and Fowley's Falls which is a series of waterfalls that cascade into the Glenariff River beside a picturesque three-km walk. Visitors to Leitrim love 17th century Parke's Castle on the shores of Lough Gill, stunning Lough Rynn Castle's estate and gardens, and Drumhierny Woodland Hideaway near carrick on Shannon, with famous names like former Ireland soccer boss Jack Charlton visiting the county and Starsky and Hutch star David Soul holidaying in Kinlough.
Katherine said: 'Leitrim is a great place to come for fishing. Jack Charlton came here for fly fishing.' Other famous people with links to Leitrim include Quinnsworth shopping empire Pat Quinn; philanthropist Margaret Haughery, who has a statue in New Orleans for her work with the poor; 1916 Proclamation signatory Seán Mac Diarmada; and explorer Thomas Heazle Parke, who has a statue in Dublin.
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