Diving In Donegal

[Happy Buddie]

A magnificent part of the world, Shull. I love the whole of the Inishowen Peninsula. In my early days motoring around up there I was totally amazed at the number of new houses all over the place and it turned out it was EU money run riot. Cottage owners got grants and all sorts to build new homes and it seems a stack of olde worlde thatched cottages and the like got flattened. Criminal but there is still plenty of the real Ireland to be seen. Donegal is so remote from Dublin that a lot of locals feel disenfranchised. The growth of Muff and other villages in Donegal is largely down now to British money and with the troubles more or less in the past the area is doing quite well. The tourist trade should be flourishing. If I had relatives up there I'd be gatecrashing regularly.

These houses were built on "business grants" , not loans, of 90% for bed & breakfasts, the beauty is they only had to open for business one day a year, usually Xmas Day and even then there were always No Vacancies.

[RickMcD]

These houses were built on "business grants" , not loans, of 90% for bed & breakfasts, the beauty is they only had to open for business one day a year, usually Xmas Day and even then there were always No Vacancies.

Now you say that I do recall it. If you've ever driven through Knock in Mayo where the Shrine is, it's absolutely unbelievable how many brand spanking new B&B places there are. Plus the airport. At first glance it was obvious that all those B&B's couldn't be viable, but of course everybody knew that from day one. They were never intended to be. But nice homes only they've all still got B&B signs.