Tourism service providers enjoyed a boom bank holiday weekend, but for some the good weather came too late to save a miserable season.
It was too late to rescue even the weekend in some areas, where the sun did not make an appearance until yesterday. By then, many holidaymakers had packed and gone home.
Despite gloomy forecasts for the industry as a whole, however, several tourism operators told The Irish Times yesterday that it has been an excellent season.
"I know everybody is complaining, but we're not," said Ms Hazel McCord, who runs the Ballykeenan Pet and Aviary Farm near Ballon, Co Carlow, with her husband, Robert.
"We had no visitors on Friday because it rained all day. It was the first day we got a break in three months. I don't remember it being as busy as this," she said.
Accommodation providers in other parts of the country painted a similar picture.
"We're as busy as ever and it's been that way right from the beginning of the season," said Ms Denise Chambers, manager of the Sligo Southern Hotel in Sligo town.
The weekend weather had made no difference to business, as the hotel was fully booked in advance. But the sunshine did have one significant effect: "It was quieter in the hotel because everybody was out of doors."
It was quieter, too, at Flemings' Caravan and Camping Park in White Bridge, Killarney, Co Kerry, but not in the way its owners would have wished.
Ms Moira Fleming said that overall business this year was down about 25 per cent, with regular Irish customers phoning in large numbers to say that they were holidaying abroad because of the weather.
Prior to last year, when the decline set in, there had always been a "great buzz" about the August bank holiday weekend, she said.
Any lingering hopes that the bank holiday weekend would save the day were dashed on Friday, when drizzling rain turned to showers in the evening.
Saturday was "very overcast", said Ms Fleming, and while Sunday had been "warm and pleasant", it remained cloudy, and a number of customers decided to cut their losses and leave.
Only yesterday did the sun break through the clouds. A few more good days would help, she said, but not enough to make it a good season. "It's all over really after the August weekend. People start focusing on September and getting the children ready for school."
In Wexford, the sunshine arrived earlier to give the Model County one of its best weekends of the summer.
Business had undoubtedly picked up as a result, said Ms Kathleen Hayes, owner of the Clonard House farmhouse near Wexford town. Her own premises, however, had been fully booked in advance.
Ms Hayes said that there had been a noticeable decline in visitors from Britain this year, and those who did come complained of high ferry prices.
Expectations that the strength of sterling against the euro would entice British people to come in larger numbers had not been realised, she said. "They're getting the same exchange rate in France and finding it better value there."
Ms Lorraine Brown, co-owner of the Atlantic House guesthouse in Donegal, said that June and July had been "quiet", but bookings for August were strong and a good month was expected.
