22 August 2016
The Year of Food and Drink is to be featured in a special show on RTE filmed entirely in Derry during one of the city’s biggest festivals this summer.
Organised through Tourism NI’s ROI Office in conjunction with Derry City & Strabane District Council and Visit Derry, RTE Nationwide will air on Monday 29th August at 7pm on RTE 1. Presented by Mary Kennedy and Anne Cassin, the programme was filmed during the Foyle Maritime Festival which took place from 9 to 17th July. Over 160,000 people enjoyed the packed programme of nautical themed activities which included hosting the stopover of the Clipper Race 2015/16 towards the end of their Round the World Journey.
Clipper Race Kitchens Food Village at Ebrington Plaza offered the best of local food across Northern Ireland and Mary interviewed Donegal Prime Fish, Tamnagh Foods and enjoyed delicious, mouth-watering local culinary freshly prepared by local and celebrity chef Ian Orr from Browns Restaurant in the City.
Nationwide also visited the Kane family in Limavady where the award winning Brioghter Gold Rapeseed Oil is produced. Richard and Leona are now the sixth generation farmers on the family farm that has been in the Kane family for over 100 years. This historic piece of land is where the Broighter Hoard of treasure was found in 1896. These days their treasure is the liquid gold oil.
The Walled City Brewery, a unique restaurant and brew house located in Ebrington Square, also features in the programme. The show interviews James Huey who is a qualified master brewer having spent 12 years brewing with the largest beer company on the island. After leaving the company, James realised he had two passions in life – craft beer and the city of Derry-Londonderry and so he set off on an extraordinary journey to build the first craft brewery in the city centre for over 100 years.
Karen Henderson from Visit Derry commented: “Derry has just been shortlisted by the Restaurants Association of Ireland as one of the top ten finalists in the search for Ireland’s top Foodie Destination 2016 after coming runner-up in this competition in 2015.
“Recent figures from our Tourist Information Centre (Jan – July 2016) have shown ROI visitors increased by 88 per cent for the month of July when the Foyle Maritime Festival was hosted in the city. This is such positive news and we look forward to welcoming more visitors to Derry in the Autumn season especially as we will be hosting ‘The Best Halloween Destination in the World’ voted by US Today and celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Banks of the Foyle Halloween Carnival”.
Around every corner of Northern Ireland you’ll find food trails and farmers markets, beer tastings and bake offs, restaurants and recipes. Every month has a theme and there will be no shortage of things to keep your mouth watering and your taste buds tingling.
For more information on the Year of Food & Drink 2016 log on to www.discovernorthernireland.com/yearoffoodanddrink2016 or for the latest industry news go to www.tourismni.com
CAPTION: Top, Fiona Cunningham (Tourism NI), Brian McVeigh (RTE), Mary Kennedy (RTE), Mary Fanning (RTE) and Karen Henderson (Visit Derry) at the filming of the RTE Nationwide show
Bottom, RTE presenter Mary Kennedy interviews chef Ian Orr at the Foyle Maritime Festival in Derr
