Carlow County Council today (5^th May 2015) announced details of the awarding of Community Diaspora Funding which will see 14 International events and festivals share over €32,000 worth of funding which will attract 1000 international visitors during 2015 worth €250,000 to the Local Economy during 2015.

The fund now in its second year once again supports Community Tourism Diaspora projects across the County of Carlow. Nationally last year 376 local events were supported attracted up to 40,000 visitors from overseas.

Speaking about the funding, Bernie O’Brien – Director of Services said  “these events are key to bringing communities together and many local communities want to continue to build events that will reach out to the Diaspora and international visitors”.

From Weekend Festivals to mark the King of Rock’n’Roll to cultural events based on cultural communities, the fund attracted a wide variety of projects. “These projects have a real economic spin off for County Carlow supporting the Tourism Sector and the wider business community” continued O’Brien and “Carlow County Council are once again delighted to roll out this funding with our partners IPB and Fáilte Ireland.

The aim of the fund is:

• To provide support in the form of small-scale funding incentives to community-based tourism events that have the capacity to carry through on the legacy of The Gathering;
• To create a national network of local events with the capacity to deepen diaspora links and networks that were developed or re-activated during The Gathering year;
• To foster the growth of strong county diaspora networks on the basis that diaspora relationships are rooted in ‘people and place’.