The first thing that marks Cashel's go-ahead approach to visitors is that its town centre tourist information office is open all year round.
The second is that in promoting its rich historical legacy, it is not content to offer visitors simply a passive walk around glass cases in a museum. Its heritage centre is designed to give people the information they need about what is worth seeing, and then to get them out there to discover each site for themselves.
In order to facilitate that, it operates a Heritage Tram which offers scheduled guided tours of the major historical sites. The combined operation is run by the Cashel Heritage & Development Trust, an entirely community-run project which acts as an umbrella group for the town's various tourism and visitor interests. It covers every aspect, from accommodation to festivals, farm visits, musical and cultural events.
The trust was set up under Bord Failte's Heritage Tour Programme, and also acts as a co-ordinated lobby group on local development needs. It has already secured new coach-parking and toilet facilities in the town centre, a major advance in linking the urban area into the huge visitor attraction represented by the Rock of Cashel.
"Busloads of people were pulling up at the Rock, going to look around it, and then getting back on the buses and departing without ever visiting Cashel," said Father Jim Egan, who is chairman of the trust. He believes the organisation has done a tremendous amount to awaken "public appreciation of what we have". It has also assisted surrounding small villages like Golden, Ardmoyle and Rosegreen, which have begun to organise their own development as a result.
"It has also been a great focus for our festival, which has taken on a new life. This couldn't have happened without the Heritage Centre, which operates as a festival office," Father Egan commented. Cashel's Cultural Festival is held from July 10th to 12th.
The Cashel Trust and its heritage centre enjoy the full support of the Urban District Council and the town's business sector. It is an example of what a small community can achieve when all its various interests and sections are united in the common cause of local development.
It has taken strenuous, voluntary effort to build up the organisation. "We've done an awful lot of fund-raising, which has raised awareness," said its chairman. "We're not backed by lending institutions or financial bodies. We have to paddle our own canoe."
Ms Mary Mulvey, the project manager, is a Maynooth graduate who also holds a Diploma in Heritage and has worked with Bord Failte and the British Tourist Board. She is chairwoman of the Heritage Towns of Ireland, and Cashel is now the headquarters of that body.
The town has been transformed in the last five years, in terms of addressing tourist needs, she said. Ms Mulvey believes that the paperwork involved in bridging the divide between State bodies and local organisations is one of the biggest barriers faced by community groups, and the Cashel Trust has been able to tackle that problem.
Its centre, in the Main Street, offers visitors an audio commentary in six European languages. It is hoping this summer to get the city's ancient charter back on long-term loan from the National Library.
The trust noted early on that in winter, despite the enormous volume of traffic and the many off-season visitors using the main Dublin-Cork road, there was no tourism office open on the entire route. Not only did it introduce 12-month opening for its heritage centre and information office, but it operates seven days a week between St Patrick's Day and the end of September. In the peak months of July and August the office remains open until 8 p.m. to facilitate visitors arriving late in the town.
For a small town of only about 3,000 people, Cashel has made great strides in five years and has, above all, introduced the important concept of service for its visitors. It does not aspire to huge tourism development. "All we want to do is to create a place where people can go to relax, get good food and have something to do," said Father Egan. "I would think we're really only finding our feet now. The next five years will be even better."