Mullingar ‘should do more for Niall's fans'
Memphis has Graceland, Liverpool has The Beatles Story, while Nashville has the Johnny Cash museum. Mullingar has Niall Horan!
Since the 21-year-old from Ardleigh shot to fame with One Direction, there has been calls to have a museum dedicated to him, as a place to attract fans from all over the world, who visit Mullingar solely because it is the homeplace of the One Direction star.
The Greville Arms Hotel, which featured in the 1D: This Is Us movie, has set up a small shrine to Niall, featuring photos and two of his Brit Awards from 2012 for Best Single and 2013 for Global Success in the hotel foyer.
“Just this week we’ve had people from California, Minnesota and Brazil coming in to see our display,” says manager John Cochrane. “We get people coming from all over the world to see it and the hotel because we featured in the movie.”
When the Westmeath Examiner talked to Niall’s dad, Bobby Horan, he said Mullingar was missing out on a huge tourism opportunity.
“There’s a great opportunity there for the town while Niall is at the top – to promote Mullingar. They [the fans] want to get something that says Mullingar on it, like a bookmark, keyring or T-shirt.
“A man from Newfoundland came over and his daughter wanted proof that he had been to where Niall Horan was from. And he ended up buying a Shamrocks jersey and a St Loman’s one because he couldn’t find anything with Mullingar written on it – it’s very sad really,” Bobby told the Westmeath Examiner last year.
Cllr Aidan Davitt raised the need for a museum first at Mullingar Town Council in the Market House, now lying empty since the council’s disbandment, and says the venue would be the perfect home for a museum dedicated to Niall Horan and Mullingar’s rich musical heritage.
“The Market House would be the perfect spot for it, it’s ideal, and it would give something that would draw fans to Mullingar. Mullingar has a great musical history, and all of that could be incorporated into it.
“It’s something I think we are missing out on and I intend to bring it up at the next meeting of the Mullingar Municipal District next week.”
Meanwhile, the we asked our Facebook followers what Mullingar could do to accommodate fans of the 1D star.
According to Éilis Carr, who is a teacher based in England, her students picked Mullingar as one of the top spots in the world to visit.
“I work in a school in the north east of England. In a recent geography lesson of 11 and 12-year-olds the kids were asked to make a list of the 10 places in the world they’d most like to visit. At least four of the girls put Mullingar on their list!”
Planning a trip to Ireland from Western Australia, Frankly Ben said Mullingar was top of their list and would like more information:
“I live in Western Australia, and Niall is my oldest daughter’s favourite. We having been planning a trip to Ireland, and one place to visit is to be Mullingar. More information would be wonderful for our planning.”
The UK’s Diane Parks would be delighted to see the museum going ahead.
“We are staying at the Greville Arms in August so that Zoe can see the display. Travelling from Hull, UK. Would be nice to know if the proposed museum is going ahead.”
Karen Goode said she and her Spanish students spent hours searching for Niall’s house just to get a glimpse of where the golden boy came from.
“Brought Spanish students to Mullingar last summer, trip to Tesco, and two hours looking for Niall’s house to take a photo, also took in Belvedere.”