An
aspect of the museum's work that is not always in the public eye is the support
we provide to local business. We do a
lot of work in the area of tourism, helping to maintain the connection with the
West Waterford Diaspora around the world. This has obvious benefits for local
restaurants, cafés and accommodation providers. Less obvious is the support we provide to
businesses that use local heritage in their branding. This can be as simple as
providing photographs of premises from ‘the olden days’, or providing
information that can help with branding (Gallows Hill Barley Wine, Legacy Cider
etc).
We are fortunate in Dungarvan to
have a very forward thinking, active business community that recognises the
role heritage and community groups can play in the economic life of the town. We were delighted when Dungarvan &
West Waterford Chamber of Commerce & Waterford Council invited our museum
to contribute to Dungarvan's presentation for the Bank of Ireland's Enterprising
Town Awards.
At an awards ceremony in
Tullamore last Thursday November 16th, Dungarvan was runner up in
the Munster Town with a population over 7000 category. We were narrowly beaten into second place by
Tralee, the eventual overall winners of the National Competition. The final presentation to the competition
judges was made by Jenny Beresford from Dungarvan Chamber, Bríd Kirby from
Waterford Council and Willie Whelan from the museum.
After the results were announced Willie Whelan
said that “It's amazing to think that Dungarvan is now in a position to be
compared to Tralee, a much larger town with decades of business development
behind it. Some of our progress as a
town is down to the ‘Greenway effect’, but more of it is down to the work of
Waterford Council, Dungarvan Chamber and other groups in promoting and
developing Dungarvan. I was very
impressed with the quality of the presentations put together by Jenny &
Bríd. They did a fantastic job telling
Dungarvan's story. It is particularly
gratifying to have local businesses recognise the contribution voluntary groups such
as our museum, Club Déise and the Men's Shed make to developing our community”.
The museum would like to thank Bank of
Ireland for organising the competition, Jennifer Hickey and local BOI staff for
their support with the competition entry; lastly we would like to thank
Dungarvan Chamber, Waterford Council and Dungarvan Enterprise Centre for giving
us another platform to promote the town's heritage.
