Cliffs Of Moher Visitor Centre, Ireland 1982

A new visitors centre brings a modern approach to tourism at the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare.

300,000 visitors come to the Cliffs of Moher each year.

The attraction of the cliffs is something that can’t be captured fully by the camera. You have to actually experience it for yourself.

In the early 1960s, Clare County Council became concerned that the cliffs would be sold for private development and as a result took the cliffs into public ownership.

A new visitor centre developed by Clare County Council and Shannonside Tourism now offers a wide range of facilities for the area. The objective of the centre is to provide all the amenities demanded by modern tourism in a building that fits unobtrusively into the landscape. However, not everyone is happy with the new tourism centre.

Dinny McMahon has been selling gifts and souvenirs and playing the tin whistle for tourists at the cliffs for more years than he cares to remember. His business has been adversely affected by the opening of the new tourism centre.

Tourism is the second biggest industry in North Clare after farming. Shannonside Tourism see developments like the new visitor centre as they way forward for the future growth of tourism in the region.

Tourist official Joe Vaughan believes that new tourist centre offers visitors a better experience. Mr Vaughan says that the visitor centre is not in competition with Dinny.

The day is now long past that people will put up with shoddy standards and having to jump over walls to go to toilets.

The new visitor centre employs nine staff and is already seeing around a thousand people a day pass through its doors.

An RTÉ News report broadcast on 29 June 1982. The reporter is Michael Walsh.

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