Kilkenny, Ireland Travel Video Guide




Comprehension test and script by Sandra Lozano Gonzalez, AP2

I'm next heading to the _______ _______ city of Kilkenny.
Kilkenny is an interesting ________ study for how a _______ can establish establish itself on the ________ ________.
In the middle _____ Kilkenny became _______ by the Kilkenny design ____________...in the _______ Kilkenny castle.
The semi _____ ______ bought about the _______ good craft design inIreland.
I worked for the _______ company Kilkenny ______ at ____ ______ and ...I was just an ______, I didn't any _____ but I had a friendly ____________
..... I took a _____ When I took over in the _____'s,we had had maybe ______ or ______staff.....a fantastic _____ over looking the castle _______
It's something very ____ that we have in Ireland and the _______ is going to came full _______ and people are going to come back to thing ____ with ________.

1.Why is so special to buy Irish hand-made products?
2.Do you think Kilkenny is a traditional city? Explain why.

VIDEOSCRIPT

I'm next heading to the quaint historic city of Kilkenny. Now Kilkenny is an interesting case study for how a location can establish itself on a tourism map. In the mid 1960's Kilkenny became based by the Kilkenny Design workshops. The semi state body brought about to proper the good craft design in Ireland. The workshops were set up in the stables and coach houses of the impressive Kilkenny castle. In the mid 1980 s the design workshops were privatised and in an interesting twist of fate was taken over by former employee Kathleen Moran. Kathleen Moran 'I worked for the original company Kilkenny Design at workshops and that was a great experience and it was privatised I saw the opportunity to maybe to put in a bin to become and have my own business. I was just an employee so I didn't have any money but I had a friendly bank manager and I worked on him and I was very fortunate that he gave me the funds and I took a risk but I had a great fate in the product and the place. When I took over in the mid 1980's we would have had 5 or 6 staff. We now have over 30 staff, we would have had 14 or 15 pottery companies we now have up to 200 suppliers all over Ireland. We have extended the square footage of the shops maybe twice the amount and put in a fantastic restaurant upstairs overlooking the castle with beautiful old beams. So, we have put a lot of investment in but we have done it very much true to the integrity of the building'. NarratorKilkenny is now well established as Ireland's craft capital. This has a flow on effect to other local business; the constant influx of tourists means Kilkenny boasts some of Ireland's finest restaurants and an accommodation. Kathleen believes a lot of Kilkenny's charm also comes from the fact the city has maintained its historic link to the days when it was a medieval merchant town.Kathleen We, the rest of Ireland were pulling down there lovely old shops fronts and putting up very modern plastic ones. Kilkenny were retaining all of theirs and they were retaining and making sure that the locals retained things that linked us to our past and heritage and that was something we should be proud of, where the bigger cities is were modernising. Kilkenny has modernised but has managed to retain wonderful shop fronts, the old lane ways so that has been very good for Kilkenny. There is something wonderful about hand made product, a product that's seen through right from the beginning to the end by the same person. I think people are kind of going to suffer from chain store fatigue or fatigue from seeing the same thing. No matter what country you go to now you see the same product. What's wonderful about Irish craft is how unique and how different it is and how beautifully made it is and we have a very high standard of craft in Ireland across of different areas and I think that is something very special that we have in Ireland. It is something, that I think the wheel will come full circle and people are going to come back to things that are made with tradition ..