Tourism leaders might consider recruiting leprechauns

It’s good to learn that tourism officials along North Carolina’s Crystal Coast are charging ahead with an ambitious marketing plan for 2019. It takes courage and faith to forge ahead to bounce back from Hurricane Florence, while clouds of economic uncertainty still loom.

Carteret County News-Times staff writer Elise Clouser reported in the May 15 edition that Carteret County’s tourism leaders are fairly optimistic that the 2019 summer season will yield decent returns. Let’s have faith that they’re on target.

No doubt, Florence (the monster storm of September 2018) had devastating and long-lasting effects on the hospitality industry in Carteret County. As we enter the peak of the 2019 tourism season, all is not back to normal.

The inventory of lodging accommodations is below normal. Several hotels are still under repair. Many vacation rental cottages suffered extensive damage as well. Several condominium complexes on Bogue Banks are still in the restoration phase and units are currently uninhabitable.

New properties have become available, however, to help fill the void. Hence, the prediction for the summer season is somewhat positive, but clouded with “iffyness.”

We have to pray and hope for the best…and extend the “hand of hospitality” to our summer guests. Those among us who are limber mentally can help by bending over backward and doing backflips to impress our “summer company.”

Should we be inclined to tweak the marketing plan and think way outside the box, town leaders in Emerald Isle could roll out the green carpet. It would be a zany effort to recruit the world’s 236 surviving leprechauns to come to the Crystal Coast for summer vacation. Dagnabbit, wouldn’t that be one heck of a booster shot for local tourism?

Today, the leprechauns are regarded as an “endangered species,” residing underground in a cavern beneath Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland. As a rule, leprechauns try to avoid human contact. But, they’ve taken a shine to the world’s official “leprechaun whisperer” in Carlingford. He’s a bloke named Kevin Woods. The leprechauns have named him “McCoillte” (man of the forest).

He tells visitors that he was approached in 2002 by an elder leprechaun named Carraig, who shared that once upon a time, millions of leprechauns populated Ireland, but “they have been dying out because people stopped believing in them.”

Carraig told Woods that the leprechauns needed someone from humankind to protect them, otherwise they would die out altogether. Woods was selected by the leprechaun nation as the man for the job. He has taken it seriously.

He originated the Carlingford National Leprechaun Hunt as an annual event to enlist believers whose faith will help keep the leprechauns alive.

Irish travel writer Catherine Mack interviewed Woods and asked him to describe the leprechauns he has seen. He replied: “They are spirits who are about 18 inches tall, have top hats, green jackets and trousers. Their shoes always have gold buckles. They were cobblers because they spent so much time dancing, and so they wear out their shoes – which is why they became cobblers.”

Mack asked Woods if she might see them. “It’s up to you,” he answered, “if you have the gift. I am not sure whether you have the gift or not.’”

As a 75-year-old storyteller, Woods is fond of the tale about “the coach driver who would stop at a spot on a road in the middle of nowhere. When the tourists asked why, he’d tell them it was ‘to let the leprechauns cross.’”

Woods said that when he sits with the leprechauns, “I feel their happiness. I listen to their music and often dance with them in my heart.”

One supposes that malarkey and blarney are traits of a good “leprechaun whisperer”…as well as an Irish tourism promoter.

“The leprechauns are just as concerned about ‘Brexit’ as we are,” Woods said. (The term “Brexit” is short for “British exit,” meaning the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union.)

Much of the discussion is focusing on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The 310-mile border now has about 300 crossings. All are soft borders, with an absence of checkpoints. Hard borders with physical barriers would be more than a nuisance; they would form wedges affecting travel and tourism, commerce and friendship.

According to Woods, some of the leprechaun tunnels at Carlingford extend into Northern Ireland.

This is also a lifeline for the leprechauns to connect to their rowdy cousins, the clurichauns. The clurichans detest work, but they love to imbibe. They’re welcome to come to Emerald Isle, too. Clurichauns would fit in well here, where it’s possible to fish and party all day and all night.