IF it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, the attitude from our techno-savvy city councillors seems to be, if you have a perfectly functional online platform promoting the county, why not dream up new ways to make a dog’s dinner out of it?
There must not be enough arts and crafts to keep them going now that our beloved Silkes is shutting shop.
Councillors took the view at this month’s Metropolitan meeting that Limerick.ie could use a lick of paint, only mad to be adding a few bells and whistles.
In a eureka moment, Cllr Sarah Kiely told the Council to get with the times and party like it’s 1999, exclaiming that the poor auld Council’s messaging is “all over the place”.
- External Walls: Up to €8,000 Grant
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The Fine Gael woman had it all figured out, never fear, demanding a ‘Visit Limerick’ website pronto! While they were at it, she wanted to see a launch of a social media campaign with appropriate branding.
“Our messaging needs to be streamlined. We need to be clear in our websites. We have Limerick.ie and we have Limerick City and County Council, there’s just a raft of different ones happening. This is not industry standards and it’s very confusing,” she offered, urging the Council to get its act together from a tourism perspective ahead of Ryder Cup 2027.
“Let’s point people in the right direction instead of a scattergun between websites and social media platforms. We need a one stop shop for visitor attractions.”
I can’t imagine the Council’s Head of Communications and Marketing, Donn O’Sullivan, formerly of this Parish, was too enamoured with the crash course in how to do his job. But he bided his time.
Social Democrats councillor Elisa O’Donovan was also of the view that Limerick.ie was so last year, deeming the Council’s award-winning website as pure “clunky”.
Independent councillor Ursula Gavan thought it would be great if everything was available on the one page, also suggesting a calendar of events.
Cllr Dan McSweeney (FG) felt it was a “missed opportunity” not to have a ‘Visit Limerick’ site.
“It’s just a bit scattered. Hopefully the resources will be put in to make this a reality,” he added.
After taking all this constructive criticism onboard, Mr O’Sullivan pointed out that Limerick already has a tourism portal in Limerick.ie/discover.
The Council’s Comms boss told the fledgling web devs that Limerick.ie attracted over a million users in 2024 and was one of the top 25 tourism websites in the world.
“Limerick.ie consistently ranks as the number one Google search result for key search items including Limerick, visit Limerick, things to do in Limerick, and where to stay in Limerick. These rankings are the result of the platform, scale, credibility, and coordinated content management strategy, advantages that a new standalone website would find extremely difficult to replace,” Mr O’Sullivan told councillors with a wry grin.
“Put that in your pipe and smoke it,” Met Cathaoirleach Cllr Daniel Butler returned. Indeed.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme