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Admission fees for Dún Aonghasa will be waved for the rest of the year. Shutterstock

Admission charges for Dún Aonghasa, Castletown House and other heritage sites to be waived

The government hopes this will help to encourage people to take trips within Ireland.

ADMISSION CHARGES TO certain Office of Public Works (OPW) heritage sites are being waived as part of the government’s July Stimulus Plan in an effort to encourage domestic tourism and support for the tourist economy.

The charges will be waived from this Monday and the measure will remain in place until the end of the year. It is hoped that this will help provide a greater appeal to Irish people to stay at home and take staycations and short breaks within Ireland particularly over the next six months.

The OPW manages 70 visitor sites around the country including some of the most iconic historic locations like the Rock of Cashel, Dún Aonghasa and Castletown House. Last year they attracted a total of over 9.3 million visitors.

Minister of State for the OPW Patrick O’Donovan today announced that many of these places will have either reduced admission fees or no charges at all for the rest of this year.

A small number of the busiest sites will not be offered with free admission as the OPW said there are concerns that they might be “overwhelmed with large numbers of visitors and create a significant Covid-19 risk”.

The OPW sites that will have fully free admission are:

  • Battle of the Boyne/Oldbridge Estates
  • Blasket Centre
  • Carrowmore
  • Castletown House and parklands
  • Céide Fields
  • Charles For
  • Corlea Trackway
  • Desmond Castle, Newcastlewest
  • Dún Aoghnasa
  • Emo Estate
  • Glebe Gallery
  • Glendalough monastic site
  • Hill of Tara site
  • JFK Arboretum
  • Jerpoint Abbey
  • Kells Priory
  • Kilmacurragh National Botanic Gardens
  • Loughcrew
  • National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin
  • Old Mellifont Abbey
  • Ormond Castle
  • Pearse Museum, Rathfarnham
  • Pearse Cottage
  • Portumna Castle Estate
  • Rathfarnham Castle
  • Roscrea Heritage grounds
  • Scattery Island
  • Trim Castle grounds
  • Fota Arboretum and gardens

Clonmacnoise, Garinish Island and the Rock of Cashel will have half price admission charges for the rest of the year. 

“Hopefully people will be able to discover something new or maybe they’ll be able to relive a childhood experience with their own families,” the OPW said today. “But we would encourage everyone to get out there and see what Ireland has to offer.”

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    Mute Bruce
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:02 AM

    Old story….

    51
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    Mute Tom Collins
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    Sep 20th 2014, 12:32 PM

    Why did they publish this? Ok smugglers and illegal fishing trawlers, the sea is all yours until the 6th!!

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    Mute Caillte
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:18 AM

    That’s what I was thinking. This was on here before.

    Anyway asbestos is only harmful if it’s disturbed. Just leave it alone.

    47
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    Mute Dearbhla Russell
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:21 AM

    So you would work in the close confines of a navy vessel with asbestos then caillte? Once its undisturbed of course.

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    Mute Conor Heffernan
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:51 AM

    Exactly caillte, I’ve worked in 2 older power stations that had it and there was never an issue….air quality is monitored daily. How many people on here have asbestos roof slates and don’t realise it….

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    Mute Rob Conneely
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    Sep 20th 2014, 3:13 PM

    Not really possible on a ship. It was used as gasket material and in fireproof lagging. Unfortunately it has to be moved for maintenance and inspection.

    Ships also tend to move a lot at sea so it would be disturbed constantly.

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    Mute Jimmy Kinsella
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:46 AM

    Wait for the claims to start rolling in.

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    Mute Tom Hetherington
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    Sep 20th 2014, 11:06 AM

    Jimmy Kinsella,
    Why are you making this childish comment. There has been no mention of anyone been exposed to asbestos and if there was exposure then the employer is negligent in his duties towards employees as out lined in the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act of 1989 and 2005. An important point to note if anyone was exposed to asbestos is that they have a very high chance of dying and if that was the case then it is only right that they would be compensated( For their Families ). Maybe the question you should be asking is why the employer did not know there was asbestos in the place of work as he is required under law to identify carcinogens and control exposure to same.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Sep 20th 2014, 9:55 AM

    Deafness is a far greater problem from navy ships engines and gunfire. Asbestos was never an issue until someone started a scare alert.

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    Mute James Darby
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    Sep 20th 2014, 10:16 AM

    Would that be the Big Bang theory, Chris.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Sep 20th 2014, 11:25 AM

    No James, it comes from personal experience of a dozen years of working in RN ships engine rooms.

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    Mute Rob Conneely
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    Sep 20th 2014, 3:18 PM

    With the ear protection these days Chris it’s less of an issue.

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    Mute Jim
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:27 AM

    Asbestos asbestos I eat asbestos for breakfast Tiny asbestos ha

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    Mute James Darby
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    Sep 20th 2014, 9:06 AM

    You may be joking Jim but I know a man in his 70′s who worked in England 40 years ago removing asbestos from buildings and factories. Speaking about his experiences he would say something like “Ah sure there’s a lot of bullshit about asbestos. There was no health and safety on our sites and sure we’d be eating asbestos sandwiches. It didn’t kill any of us”. I’d say he’s probably lucky to have survived his experiences but I do agree with him to some extent when he says that there’s a lot of bullshit about asbestos. It was used in industry and internal combustion engines for generations and if left undisturbed it presents no danger.

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    Mute Jason Bourne
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    Sep 20th 2014, 8:52 AM

    Is this another “Oh, looks like we have hazardous material in our equipment, guna be a be a big loss to scrap all this”

    Big loss? What are you talking about? Just sell it to the Irish.

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    Mute igloo flush
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    Sep 20th 2014, 9:26 AM

    Maybe it’s not asbestos, it’s another white powder!

    3
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