An Italian solution could soon help to solve a rural Irish problem – a Co Roscommon town left without a hotel for six years.
Residents of Boyle are being asked to support a proposal for a scattered hotel – based on the Italian “Albergo Diffuso” model – which would see four star accommodation provided in rooms over shops and in empty buildings in the town.
Boyle’s Royal Hotel closed its doors in 2011 after 230 years and is now a faded eyesore in the heart of a town which is failing to bring in visitors to nearby tourist attractions such as the Cicterican Abbey, King House (the former home of the King Harmon family) and Lough Key Forest Park.
With the hotel closed, and the shutters down on several town centre businesses, locals say Boyle has failed to exploit its heritage attractions as well as the buzz created when local actor Chris O'Dowd set the TV series Moone Boy in the town.
Property owners ... needed to 'have skin in the game if this is to work'
Writer and Boyle native John Mulligan believes no one would invest the millions needed to construct a traditional hotel in the town. However, he got the scatterd hotel idea after staying in an Albergo Diffuso in Italy.
He said the model had helped to revive more than 40 Italian heritage towns and could give Boyle a major boost.
Mr Mulligan** said property owners would have to commit for a minimum of 10 years and needed to “have skin in the game if this is to work”.
Feasibility
Members of a “town team” set up to spearhead the project are carrying out a feasibility study and believe the first phase of the “scattered hotel “ could be up and running next year. Expressions of interest are being sought from property owners on Main Street, Bridge Street and Patrick Street.
Tommy Cunningham, owner of Sloan’s hardware shop, said he would definitely sign up to the scattered hotel concept. “We have two floors vacant above the shop,” said Mr Cunningham, who owns a number of town centre properties.
I left when I was 17 and every time I come back there's somewhere else closed
Mr Cunningham said the plan needed to work “otherwise the town is gone”.
He recalled every street in the town having its own football team back when “there were 20 families living on Main Street but there are probably three people living there now”.
Brussels-based lawyer James Candon, who owns a number of vacant properties on Patrick Street where his family ran a wholesale food business, is also supporting the initiative.
“It would be a fantastic boost for Boyle,” he said. “ I left when I was 17 and every time I come back there’s somewhere else closed. All that’s left are the betting shops . . . There used to be 26 pubs in the town. Now there are eight or nine.”
Committee
His cousin Alison Clarke, who runs a bar and restaurant on Patrick Street, is on the committee which recently met with Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal Damian English to promote the idea.
Mr English said the “scattered hotel” idea was one of a number being looked in his department but that “Boyle is a place that would suit a concept like that”.
The locals made a case for grant aid of €1.3 million towards a first phase comprising 20 rooms , a fitted out reception area and a central hub.
Dorothy Shannon who runs the bustling King House tearooms says she would be up for the challenge of catering for the scattered hotel clientele.
“It is a really clever idea and Boyle needs ideas now. If we work together it will happen.”
**This article was amended on April 18th, 2017
