Future of show is up in the air
THE abandonment for economic reasons of the annual international air show at Portrush is a blow to tourism along the Causeway Coast, but hopes are high that this highly popular late-summer event will in future be revived.
Coleraine Borough Council, which organises the show, found that financial stringencies left it unable to provide funds to compensate for withdrawal of private sponsors, affected by the economic downturn.
The September air show attracts tens of thousands of people to the picturesque West Strand and it provides a lucrative bonanza at the end of the summer season for local traders.
Coleraine councillors had the difficulty in weighing up from its much tighter budget the options of preserving essential public services in the borough, which included maintaining the daily lifeguard safety operations on local coastal beaches, or in allocating a considerable cash injection to the air show.
A choice had regrettably to be made and a break in the 10-year run of the international air show comes as a big disappointment to many people across Northern Ireland, and further afield.
The Coleraine Triangle, with its popular coastal resorts, is a premier mecca for holiday-makers every summer and the council has been very imaginative in its continued support of other major events in the area – North West 200 motor cycle races and the Milk Cup international soccer tourney.
Optimistically, councillors have pledged that the air show will be back to fill an important date on the holiday calendar.
Backroom deal
SINN Fein's Gerry Adams can spin all he wants about the 20million allocated from the Treasury to the promotion of the Irish language in Northern Ireland not being a side deal agreed with the Government.
But, it is all too apparent that Prime Minister Gordon Brown made this squalid unilateral backroom arrangement with republicans to keep them onside in negotiations on devolution of policing and justice.
The Irish language is spoken by a very tiny percentage of people in Northern Ireland and it has little or no relevance in the modern world.
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Weather for Belfast
Monday 13 February 2012
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