Foodies Fight Back with Lucinda
Thursday 13 May 2021
Over the past 12 months hoteliers have had to walk empty corridors while maintaining hundreds of vacant bedrooms, restaurants, function rooms, bars and gardens. It has to be very emotional. Today, on the first anniversary of Foodies Fight Back, I speak to four hoteliers who featured at the very beginning. Back then, however, they had no idea of the nightmare of rolling lockdowns that was to come.
EAST CORK
Stephen Belton is managing director of the Garryvoe and Bayview hotels in East Cork and also chairperson of Original Irish Hotels, a group of 56 family-owned hotels throughout the country.
“Our lives have been turned upside down with worry, confusion, depression, anxiety and helplessness,” he says. Their hotels shut on March 17 last year and didn’t reopen until July 1. “During this period, we did all we were supposed to do regarding the actions to protect our staff and customers. We then got our suits dry-cleaned and off we went, back to what we love — welcoming people into our hotels, looking at ways to improve their experience, and enjoying the banter behind the scenes with the people we’ve worked with for years.”
lucindaosullivan.com
First Published In The Sunday Independent