News

Jazz Fest in the Balance

The organisers of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival will be keenly awaiting the outcome of Tuesday's Cabinet meeting on whether or not to further ease the remaining Covid-19 corkjazz

restrictions from next Friday.

The Government had earmarked 22 October for lifting the final restrictions which coincides with the start of the first major festival in Ireland since the pandemic first broke out.

A spokesperson for the festival - which began in 1978 - said today that they are continuing to plan for this year's jazz festival.

"We are aware that further announcements regarding restrictions are due to be released early next week (Tuesday). The health & safety of the public remains our absolute priority."

The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival is one of the biggest and longest-running events on the Irish music calendar, attracting thousands of people to the city over the bank holiday weekend.

It is estimated that it is worth €45 million to the wider Cork community.

Ballinahinch trades well post-Covid

Ballynahinch Castle hotel in Co Galway has traded well since reopening after Covid closures, according to the most recent accounts for the property. ballinahinch

According to the latest accounts from Yelsea Ltd, the hotel, since reopening on June 2nd, 2021, following a Covid-19 enforced shutdown, has “traded well in the domestic market”.

The accounts show that the impact of two Covid-19 closures last year contributed to pretax losses increasing by 73.5 per cent to €1.83 million. Revenues decreased by 48.5 per cent from €6.5 million to €3.3 million.

On the impact of Covid-19 on the hotel, which is located on a 700-acre estate at Recess in Co Galway, the accounts said that “there were two periods of closure enforced by Government restrictions and despite these circumstances, when open, the hotel traded exceptionally well”.

The company’s directors said that they are satisfied with the company performance considering the very difficult trading conditions.

United to Fly Dublin-Newark

United Airlines will boost flights from Dublin Airport to Newark in New Jersey to twice a day from next year as part of the US carrier’s biggest ever transatlantic expansion. unitedq1021

The US airline flies once daily between Irish capital and Newark, which offers easy access to New York via a 30-minute train service.

The carrier intends increasing this to twice a day from April 24th, 2022. The move will increase confidence that the Republic can shortly begin restoring key US routes lost during the pandemic.

Dublin Airport said that the additional year-round service would add to other United flights from here to the US that will resume next year. These include Dublin to Chicago and Washington Dulles and Shannon to Newark.

Pubs face slow recovery

The pub trade is expected to take a long time to recover to pre-pandemic sales levels, with many bars still likely to voluntarily close on certain days of the week, due to staff pub shortages and other issues.

Remaining restrictions — including those on indoor hospitality — are due to be lifted next week, but this has been thrown into doubt after Taoiseach Micheál Martin said yesterday that he cannot guarantee society will reopen fully as planned on October 22.

He said that a “very serious” presentation by health officials about a spike in Covid cases, is “having an impact”. He added that a meeting would be held next week with government and health officials on whether nightclubs and other indoor venues can reopen as planned.

Flogas Golf Returns

John Rooney, managing director, Flogas Ireland (second from right) with Irish International Robert Moran, Trevor Randolph, Metropolitan Golf Association, New York, and Mark flogas1021 Kennelly CEO, Golf Ireland at the launch of the 2021 Flogas Irish Men's Amateur Open Championship, which the company has sponsored since 2016. The Championship is returning following a one-year absence due to Covid-19 and taking place at the European Club in Wicklow between 15th to 17th October. 93 players from 11 countries will be looking to win the prestigious title, which was first played for in 1892.