The main focus of The Gathering Ireland will be a series of flagship festivals throughout the year, both existing and new, along with special interest spin-off events, designed to showcase Irish arts, food, sports, genealogy, family heritage, learning, science and hospitality. The initiative was officially launched with a number of special events on St. Patrick’s Day 2012.

Tourism Ireland stated that The Gathering could generate up to €399 million for the Irish economy and create 2,000 jobs.

"There are a lot of people with Irish connections or a fondness for Ireland who have a vague plan to get here some time -- we want to light a fire under them and get them here in 2013," said Fáilte Ireland CEO Shaun Quinn.

Why the USA market?  
Unique within the Island of Ireland, South Dublin County possesses 3 venues with a strong association with the top three sports in the USA, namely Basketball, Baseball and American Football.

Basketball
Tallaght is home to the National Basketball Arena and the national association, Basketball Ireland. Both the venue and the organisation have strong links and association with American players and college teams. The venue recently had the ultimate demonstrators of the game in hosting the visiting Harlem Globetrotters in 2011.

American Football
Tallaght Stadium is a recent addition to the sports venue portfolio of the county. With approximately 6,000 seat capacity, the stadium has hosted a wide variety of international and domestic sports. In 2012, the stadium will host the Shamrock Bowl, the Irish league final of the Irish American Football Association.

Baseball
Much of the interest generated in Baseball over the past few years can be attributed to the dream of a generous sponsor and the development of a purpose-built National Baseball Facility in Clondalkin.

Irish-American Peter O'Malley, former owner and President of the Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball organisation, first met with the Irish Baseball & Softball Association in 1994. Having already developed baseball fields in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and China, O'Malley pledged $140,000 to the building of an Irish Baseball facility.

Building on the site began in June of 1997 and both fields were officially opened for play on July 4th, 1998. The facility incorporates a regulation sized adult field and an international standard Little League field. The fields are located in Corkagh Demesne Park in Clondalkin. The fields are the centrepiece of Baseball activity in Ireland and play host to regular season league games for adult and youth teams as well as international fixtures.

With the addition of this purpose built National Baseball Facility the total number of youth and adult baseball teams and the profile of the sport is expected to grow significantly over the coming years

 Summary:

SDCT proposes to develop and execute different tournaments that will run in July 2013. Tapping into the colleges in the USA with a strong Irish association, it is proposed the recruit 6 colleges for each sport. As the company did not want a one off event in 2013 South Dublin County Tourism aspires to a playoff every 2 years, the teams will play for a sponsored trophy.

Why the UK Market?

Youth Soccer
Again, taking advantage of the venues in the county, Tallaght Stadium is beautifully positioned to host the soccer tournament in July 2013. South Dublin County Tourism proposes to recruit six youth teams from clubs with a strong Irish association. Again, the hope would be to build to a repeat tournament that would become a regular feature on the summer soccer programme.

Cricket
When Kevin O’Brien hit the fastest World Cup Century of all time and Ireland beat England in India last year, there have been healthy signs of real growth in cricket in South Dublin County.

Adamstown Cricket Club was founded in April 2009 and is based in Corkagh Park. Following the same approach as the other sports, 6 teams from England, Wales and Scotland will be invited to play in the invitational tournament.

 Now that The Gathering 2013 has gained momentum, SDCT has augmented the programme of activity based on the primary remit of The Gathering 2013 – that of bringing additional numbers of visitors into the country. With a sharp focus on youth teams, SDCT anticipates that additional family members will travel to participate in the event. We know that there are 5,000 travelling to Dublin to support the college teams playing in September this year. South Dublin County Tourism has added international art, bridge, cycling, Irish dancing and photographic competitions to the festival. We have also received requests to host chess, golf, boxing, canoeing, rugby, taekwondo, poker, rhythmic gymnastics and pipe band competitions.

Running with the current programme, South Dublin County Tourism estimates at least 60 days of activity under The Gathering Dublin 2013.

As we hope to schedule to host up to twenty tournaments focusing on sport, culture and the arts, we have had expressions of interest from several parties in relation to sponsorship and are currently developing sponsorship packages.

Working closely with South Dublin County libraries, we are researching the 20 most popular Irish Family names in the county. We will then ask county residents with that surname to nominate themselves as an ambassador for the family. Each trophy will be named after a family i.e The American football trophy could be named after the Byrne clan. This will assist in building the identity and brand of this cultural event.

SDCT intends to build an ambassador training programme for the events. Drawing from the active retired community in the county, the ambassadors will undergo training in customer service, event management, health & safety and local history/ culture.  The ambassadors will be the friendly face at each of the tournaments throughout the year.

The 13 member hotels of SDCT have agreed to give an allocation of rooms at €13 for the duration of the events. We intend to name a week each month after an Irish family name and if a visitor checks in to a member hotel with proof of the family name (passport etc) and subject to availability, the visitor will receive accommodation at the discounted rate.

Operation

South Dublin County Tourism (SDCT) is the lead organiser for this proposal and the programme has an increased likelihood of success due to the high level of support received from numerous strategic partnerships and alliances.

The Gathering Dublin 2013 is registered to South Dublin County Tourism as a company trading name. South Dublin County Tourism has registered the www.thegatheringdublin.com  and www.thegatheringdublin.ie.

The brand, logo and website are under construction. The company is also augmenting the features of the mobile app iGuideSouthDublin and will have a dedicated app. for the Gathering Dublin 2013.

Now that The Gathering 2013 has gained momentum, SDCT has augmented the programme of activity based on the primary remit of The Gathering 2013 – that of bringing additional numbers of visitors into the country. With a sharp focus on youth teams, SDCT anticipates that additional family members will travel to participate in the event. We know that there are 5,000 travelling to Dublin to support the college teams playing in September this year. South Dublin County Tourism has added international art, bridge, cycling, Irish dancing and photographic competitions to the festival. We have also received requests to host chess, golf, boxing, canoeing, rugby, taekwondo, poker, rhythmic gymnastics and pipe band competitions.

Running with the current programme, South Dublin County Tourism estimates at least 60 days of activity under The Gathering Dublin 2013.

As we hope to schedule to host up to twenty tournaments focusing on sport, culture and the arts, we have had expressions of interest from several parties in relation to sponsorship and are currently developing sponsorship packages.

Working closely with South Dublin County libraries, we are researching the 20 most popular Irish Family names in the county. We will then ask county residents with that surname to nominate themselves as an ambassador for the family. Each trophy will be named after a family i.e The American football trophy could be named after the Byrne clan. This will assist in building the identity and brand of this cultural event.

SDCT intends to build an ambassador training programme for the events. Drawing from the active retired community in the county, the ambassadors will undergo training in customer service, event management, health & safety and local history/ culture.  The ambassadors will be the friendly face at each of the tournaments throughout the year.

The 13 member hotels of SDCT have agreed to give an allocation of rooms at €13 for the duration of the events. We intend to name a week each month after an Irish family name and if a visitor checks in to a member hotel with proof of the family name (passport etc) and subject to availability, the visitor will receive accommodation at the discounted rate.

Marketing

The Gathering Dublin 2013 is registered to South Dublin County Tourism as a company trading name. South Dublin County Tourism has registered the www.thegatheringdublin.com  and www.thegatheringdublin.ie.

The brand, logo and website are under construction. The company is also augmenting the features of the mobile app iGuideSouthDublin and will have a dedicated app. for the Gathering Dublin 2013.