Home

Church of Ireland Home

Diocesan News

An Taoiseach launches Dunmanway promotional video spearheaded by local Church of Ireland parish

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited Dunmanway to see the birthplace and final resting place of Sam Maguire. He also visited the Sam Maguire Bells in St Mary’s Church. The Rev Cliff Jeffers, Rector of Fanlobbus Union, and the Sam Maguire Community Bells Team posed for a picture with An Taoiseach. Photo: Andy Gibson.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar visited Dunmanway to see the birthplace and final resting place of Sam Maguire. He also visited the Sam Maguire Bells in St Mary’s Church. The Rev Cliff Jeffers, Rector of Fanlobbus Union, and the Sam Maguire Community Bells Team posed for a picture with An Taoiseach. Photo: Andy Gibson.

A promotional video officially launched by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Friday 20th July, has already been viewed more than 100,000 times. The new Dunmanway Tourism Promotional video is designed to showcase the highlights of the West Cork town. During his visit to Dunmanway, the Taoiseach visited the Sam Maguire Visitor Experience which includes the burial place of Sam Maguire, and rang the newly installed Sam Maguire Community Bells.

Following the highly successful launch of the ‘Discover Dunmanway’ brochure, website and VIP (Visitor Information Point) earlier this summer, Dunmanway Tourism Initiative teamed up with local film–maker Brendan Hayes to create a promotional video featuring the many tourism attractions available to visitors to the town.

This video, created with the support of Cork County Council and Pure Cork, is available to view here.

Ireland rugby player Darren Sweetnam, past pupil of Bandon Grammar School, who features in the video said: ‘I was genuinely blown away by this video promoting my home town. It showcases Dunmanway’s many treasures and puts Dunmanway well and truly on the map for tourism in West Cork.’

Darren also commended the Rev. Cliff Jeffers, Brendan Hayes and the organisations involved in Dunmanway Tourism Initiative for all their hard work in bringing this project to completion.

Dunmanway offers several visitor attractions, many of which are free, including the Sam Maguire Visitor Experience at St Mary’s Church, the burial place of Sam Maguire, the Sam Maguire Community bells, guided and self–guided historic walking tours, Sam Maguire’s Homestead, and Dunmanway’s own state of the art swimming pool. Details of all attractions can be seen on www.visitdunmanway.ie as well as in the free ‘Discover Dunmanway’ tourism brochure, which is available in outlets throughout West Cork.

The Sam Maguire Visitor Experience at St Mary’s Church in Dunmanway is open every day during the summer from 12 noon to 4pm. Visitors are welcome to find out more about the man behind the famous trophy through visiting his grave, church, watching short information videos and ringing the Sam Maguire Community Bells.

The Reverend Cliff Jeffers of St Mary’s Church of Ireland said:
So many people know the name Sam Maguire, but we want people to experience the fascinating story of the man behind the cup by visiting the many attractions in his hometown of Dunmanway.

The sharing of this promotional video has been assisted by the offering of a competition by Dunmanway Tourism Initiative with a free family pass to a number of the great attractions in the hometown of Sam Maguire.

  • An Taoiseach was shown a knitted version of the Sam Maguire Cup, made by local ladies. Photo: Andy Gibson.
  • An Taoiseach met young Ryan from Dunmanway. Photo: Andy Gibson.
  • An Taoiseach rang the chimes in the Church bell tower along with Senator Tim Lombard, Sean Kelly MEP and Jim Daly TD. Photo: Andy Gibson.

 

Our use of cookies

Some cookies are necessary for us to manage how our website behaves while other optional, or non-necessary, cookies help us to analyse website usage. You can Accept All or Reject All optional cookies or control individual cookie types below.

You can read more in our Cookie Notice

Functional

These cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics cookies

Analytical cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on its usage.