Irish Festival Press Officer wins praise from Irish Prime Minister and an international Press Award

Irish Festival Press Officer wins praise from Irish Prime Minister and an international Press Award

Tony Hennigan the Manchester Irish Festival Press Officer, has won praise from an Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), Enda Kenny and has won an international Press Award from the Ballina Salmon Festival in County Mayo in Ireland.

He received the award for his work with the 2011 Ballina Salmon Festival, where he volunteered his services as the official press officer, photographer and social media expert. Benny Walkin the chairperson of the festival said “The 2011 Ballina Salmon Festival was a great success and we would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Tony for his time, hard work and professionalism during our festival. His photographs, press releases and social media skills were second to none and we are truly grateful for all his help and assistance during our busy time.”

Tony had formed the partnership with the Ballina Salmon Festival as part of his work for the Manchester Mayo Tourism and Business group which was formed by himself and his brother Lawrence in July.As well as working with the Salmon Festival, the group also worked with the Ballina Chamber to help them promote the inaugural Ballina Music Festival and they sponsored the World Busking competition which was one of the highlights of that event.This year they have already formed partnerships with 'Flybe airlines' to help them promote the newly reopened Manchester to Knock route and have helped promote the newly launched Mayo County council website www.Mayo.ie

When asked to comment about the project, an Taoiseach, Enda Kenny replied "I think the link between Manchester and Mayo is a superb idea and with Knock Airport being so close, the two areas are just a short sixty minutes apart. My own brother and friends are in Manchester, it would be great to see the links develop. This festival is really important to the local economy, it attracts over 200,000 visitors and provides a much needed boost. It has a strong family element which is really important and what makes it special. From my own point of view , I want to put Ballina as the top tourism destination in Ireland. We are already the known as Ireland's Salmon capital, but I want to make it the capital of the world."

When asked about how he felt about winning the award Tony replied “It was a real honour to receive the award and to gain the support of 'an Taoiseach', Enda Kenny. My father and late mother were both born in Attymass Parish, which is just a few miles outside of Ballina. We still have a house there. It was one of the reasons why we formed the group to try and help promote tourism in the West of Ireland. Manchester and in particular Levenshulme village, where the group is based in the South of Manchester, has major links with Mayo already, the group aims to capitalize on those links and strengthen its contacts between the two areas."

The group is still looking to expand its links and has already developed a dedicated page of links onwww.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk . A special website dedicated to the group is currently being developed and which will be launched in March. “Our next goal is to develop links with Ireland West Airport and we have been approached to help with the ‘Westfest’ which will e taking place in Ballina in the summer. We were overwhelmed with the support we received for the project during the summer. The group are still looking for more people from Manchester with Mayo links to get involved and anyone from Business or Tourism links in Mayo to contact us.”

Mayo is not the only place that the Manchester Irish Festival has recently formed partnerships with, during the last month it has formed links with New York’s 'St Patrick’s Day Parade' and Dublin’s 'Temple Bar Festival'.

For further information about the project visit www.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk or email pressmif@gmail.com