By Ed Forry
BIR Publisher
Suzanne Meade, business development manager for the Edwards Hotels, was among a group of Irish travel and hospitality officials who visited Boston this spring under the sponsorship of Tourism Ireland’s “Jump into Ireland“ campaign. Meade’s company operates four leading hotels, including the Meyrick Hotel and the G Hotel both in Galway, the Lisloughrey Lodge, a
60-bed country house adjacent Ashford Castle in Cong, Cty Mayo, and the D Hotel in Drogheda, Cty Louth.

“It’s all about experiencing Ireland, get involved with it,” Meade said in an interview during
her visit to the Boston’s Seaport District in late April.
Her company owns the landmark Meyrick at Eyre Square, formerly known as the Great Southern Hotel/ Galway. She said the Edwards Hotel group purchased the hotel called the “Grande Dame of Galway” in 2007, and renamed it after General Meyrick, whose name had historically been linked with the land. The origin of the square comes from medieval open space in front of town gate, known as The Green.
In 1801, General Meyrick raised a stone wall around the square, which was later known as Meyrick Square. Meade said the new management “refurbished the hotel to the old elegance.” Just on the edge of town, a short car, cab or bus ride to Eyre Square is the luxurious G Hotel, the newest and quite likely the most glitzy hotel on the island. Galway’s only five-star hotel, the G was designed by the world renowned milliner Philip Treacy, and offers glorious guestrooms, a luxury spa and first class dining options.
“Treacy did all those wonderful hats in the Harry Potter movies, and he designed the hats in the royal wedding of Prince William and His fashions are world renowned, and Galway proudly claims him as a native.
The G was rated “one of the top three hotels in the world for ambience and design” by the Condé Nast Gold List, and “Top Hotel in Ireland” by Travel & Leisure magazine.
Meade says the summer of 2012 is going to be huge in Galway: “We have an awful lot going on; it’s really the city of festivals for Ireland, non-stop from March.” There’s the upcoming Festival of Literature and the Traditional Music Festival July 16-29. And Galway Race Week begins on Mon., July 30, and runs through Sun., Aug. 5 in Ballybrit.
But the big event this summer, she says, takes place in early July: “The first week in July the Volvo Ocean race returns to Galway at the finish. It came here three years ago, on a Boston to Galway leg. But they purposely chose Galway for the finish this year
because they were so blown away last time. Meade says the Volvo activities include “Free entertainment – bands every night from the 30th of June until the 8th of July. And it’s all free; just pay for your drinks and food!”
Don’t just come and see the island of Ireland in 2012 but “Jump In.” That was the message as Tourism Ireland launched its new brand to a gathering of Boston travel trade partners and industry media at Boston Exchange Conference Center recently. “Jump
into Ireland” describes the joyful immersion of a trip to Ireland, a theme that will dominate Tourism Ireland’s advertising, consumer and trade promotional activities, co-operative campaigns and media outreach this year and also be a focus for extensive social media campaigns to drive awareness of the unique nature of a vacation to the island of Ireland.