Next week, President Barack Obama will visit the tiny village of Moneygall in Ireland. The locals have not, as of yet, done a very good job of preparing for the visit. The authorities have not provided any catering facilities for visitors from Ireland or abroad, and have not added any public toilets to the area.
Where’s the Food?
The village does not have a restaurant or a café and there are no signs indicating where tourists can eat or fill up their cars. Certainly, the number of tourists is set to skyrocket next week.
Even those who hope to cash in on the experience are having a difficult time pulling it together. Ollie Hayes, who owns a local pub, doesn’t have the license he needs to sell food to the visitors, and Irish businessman Pat McDonagh, who is in the process of building a Barack Obama Plaza hasn’t heard yet if he will be allowed to provide catering in Moneygall.
As McDonagh said, “Thousands will be coming here. We enquired about it but I was told there wouldn’t be any wagons or catering vans allowed. I want to provide these facilities as an Irish businessman who can see the opportunity is there.”
Working Hard to Welcome Tourists
At this time, no information office has opened up in the village. Mr. Hayes and Henry Healy, who is a distant cousin of Mr. Obama, are both working hard to welcome tourists and to provide for their needs. The Obama Café, which is being built quickly, will probably only open a month after the president’s visit.
Just last week, the CIA actually left the village because they couldn’t find anywhere to buy lunch. Others who have been seen in the village lately include media from CNN, BBC, Agence France Presse, Al-Jazeera and British newspapers.
When the Tourism Minister Leo Varadaker was contacted for comment, he said that the matter wasn’t under his remit.
Time will tell how Obama’s entourage plans to deal with the potential mayhem!