Jan- don't expect a big welcome or lots of information from any of the genealogy centres here in Ireland but do expect to pay large amounts of money for little information. Suggest you check a couple of their websites and look at the costs before going down this line of research.
aghadowey, you must be joking ... Irish people are renowned throughout the world for their friendliness, hospitality and willingness to give visitors to the country as much assistance as possible. Am I mistaken in thinking that heritage centres and museums participate in
"The Welcome Host and Welcome All" training courses which have enabled over eighty hospitality industry representatives to improve their customer care? There's a training Council which offers applied training courses for the tourism and hospitality sector. Eighty doesn't sound all that many ... I wonder if that figure is correct. I found it on the Lisburn Council website
Economic Development Annual Progress Report April 2001 to March 2002. Surely there must be a more recent report somewhere online.
I've found another such course
"Welcome to Excellence" which is widely regarded as the gold standard by the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors. Maybe heritage centres aren't interested in such courses.
Has there not been a great deal of progress since the comments made in the
"Report on Value for Money Examination, no. 14, Comptroller & Auditor General, 1996" which was issued by The Heritage Council (An Chomhairle Oidhreachta) twelve years ago? The points raised in the conclusions reached in sections 9.78 to 9.82 didn't make very good reading ...
9.79 The product offered was not consistent across the country.
9.80 No facilities for public access to genealogical records.
9.81 The set charges were too high for people requiring information and not a report.
9.82 There was no clear definition regarding the area which a heritage centre covered.
Christopher
