"Backs to the Wall" Tours

New guide service for Fethard Walled Town, Co. Tipperary

A new tourist ‘guiding’ business, known as ‘Backs to the Wall’ Tours, has just been launched in Fethard by two enterprising locals, Colm McGrath and Terry Cunningham, both of whom have a long involvement in the whole tourism and local history scene.

Colm is the current Chairperson and Terry the PRO of the Fethard Historical Society that has worked for over twenty years to get state funds and official recognition for this unique town. All the hard work has finally paid off as great conservation and repair work has been carried out on the Town Wall over the past five years.

Group Guiding Service.

‘Backs to the Wall’ will initially be a Guide Service for groups who wish to visit and enjoy the story and ambience of the town. The town is most unusual in having nearly all its Wall still standing and also having its 800 year old Norman church and 700 year old Augustinian Abbey still in current use. But it will be the story of the town, rather than the detailed history, that the  visitor will experience as the motto on the publicity says “Tours that bring history to life, not bore you to death’. So all types of groups  - be they social clubs, work groups, parish groups, as well as tourist coach tours, will be able to spend a few hours visiting the town, including staying on for food and entertainment and hopefully some will also stay over in the many fine guesthouses in the area.
Then for the 2012 year the ‘Backs to the Wall’ service will especially target school groups, when the visit will involve much re-enactment, games  and role-play and dovetail with the school’s educational programmes in History, Geography and related areas.

The Two Promoters

The partners in this new venture bring with them a wealth of experience that will ensure that a ‘Backs to the Wall’ visit to Fethard will live long in the memory.

Colm McGrath , a native of Rathkenny, has worked in the ‘guiding business’ for many years, both in Dublin and here in Tipperary and for the past few years he has promoted his tourism business via his own website, www.tipptours.com. Colm’s known acting and historical re-enacting skills will also be used in the new ‘Backs to the Wall’ programme , especially with school and educational groups.

  
Terry Cunningham ,as well as his local involvement , has worked professionally  for over twenty years with Teagasc  on rural tourism and artisan food development in the six South East counties. Terry ceased working with Teagasc last Christmas and is now initiating his own tourism and food projects and his www.foodinseason.ie website is being developed to further those enterprises.

Great Support

Great help and support for the new venture has come from many quarters and in fact the service could not function without this co-operation. Holy Trinity Church of Ireland and The Augustinian Abbey have given every facility and The Community Council , via the new ‘Youth Centre’ are co-operating in every way possible. Of course, but for the work of the Heritage Council and The County Council and especially the huge effort of the Tidy Towns group , there would not be any tourism product fit to show to any visitor. Colm and Terry would like also to thank the other members of the Historical Society for their help, especially Mary Hanrahan who has set and maintained a very high guiding standard for all the visiting ‘guest’ groups who have come to the town over the years.

Information and Contact

The ‘Backs to the Wall’ concept of tours and workshops will be developed over the coming years and current information can be found on www.tipptours.com or

 by emailing tours@fethard.com or phoning : Colm  086 350 23 60

or Terry 086 390 53 73