I have been following my daughter's dance career since she was four. She is
now a lady of 18. I have had the opportunity, and pleasure, to have
experienced ALL of Irish dance. We have been to every regional Oireachtas
, most North American and four (or is it five?) World Championships in that time. I would not
give it up for anything. My sincere thinking has always been that
maybe I could give something back to our community. After all, there had
not been any
place to acquire practical information for such a major trip. That was the
seed. I soon discovered doors in front of me because I was not a travel agent. I
researched and found I could, and should, become one. Can you imagine a worse time
to enter the travel industry? First they moved the location of the
2000 Worlds from Limerick to Ennis. As soon as all of those
bookings were changed they cancelled the competition entirely due to Foot and Mouth.
Ouch! Next, 911 !! The travel industry in general is now in the grips of
a full blown depression. Maybe now is a good time for me to sell my ENRON stock.
:-))
I have had so much pleasure communicating with parents of dancers from California to Arkansas to New York. Many have never taken a trip like this. I am thrilled to give them advice. I have very much enjoyed this adventure. I kid my wife that this is how I am handling my mid-life crisis. Some men get Harley's, some go out for cigarettes and never return, I became a travel agent.
Please feel free to use my fares to help you negotiate with your travel agent. They are up against the wall financially and may not survive. My goal is not to get rich, obviously, but to help my fellow parents enable their children to realize their dreams.
Those are my Jessica's feet on our backyard deck. The Crogan family's 15 minutes of fame.
See you in Killarney Joe Crogan