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The huge American morning show had been transported with crew, presenters and equipment to Co Kerry in a massive logistics operation.
IN KENMARE AT noon, presenter Savannah Guthrie opened NBC’s long-running Today Show broadcast for the first time from outside the US with a reference to how lucky they were to have seen two rainbows that morning.
Then it was onto the news of the day in the US – the Oregon shootings.
The huge American morning show had been transported with crew, presenters and equipment to Co Kerry in a massive logistics operation involving 20 pallets of equipment, dozens of personnel and all seven presenters.
Tourism Ireland sponsors of the operation were not saying what the cost was. But as far as the overseas marketing organisation was concerned, the proverbial pot of gold had already been found at the end of one rainbow. And the second pot would surely follow.
Siobhan McManamy, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Markets & Partnerships said Tourism Ireland was not revealing the cost of the event which has been in preparation for some time.
A month ago, when it was announced that the full four-hour programme would be broadcast from Co Kerry – the value of the advertising generated was the equivalent of what Tourism Ireland had spent, she said enigmatically, if not quite mathematically.
The show had a daily audience reach of 30 million in the US and Friday’s broadcast with clips from all over Ireland should ensure revenue from the North American market would reach the aimed-for €2 billion mark, McManamy said.
The show went out at noon, but it was an earlier start for the crew who had flown in after Thursday’s US broadcast.
The “media pen” in front of the specially built stage on the banks of the Sheen River heard.
Jenna Bush, daughter of President George and Laura Bush practice her cúpla focal: how to get Colaiste Ide, the girls all Irish secondary school in Dingle right.
She also wanted to tell us how near Ireland was to the US
“From the east coast of America to here is a quick trip and I hope our viewers get to see that,” she said of the seven-hour journey she slept through.
This was from New York to Texas, she remarks.
Jenna was in green, and many of the crew sported wax coats and one or two even had an Aran jumper.
Links with Ireland were emerging in surprising places. Al Rooker veteran weather forecaster and the longest anchor with The Today Show said there was an absolute “grá” for Ireland in America. And he revealed an Irish ancestry few know about.
Dressed in green cords — he favours the colour anyway, and he has sported an Irish tweed hat for 50 years, Rooker told how his mother’s grandmother was a Smith from Ireland.
She had worked as a domestic servant in Boston and married his great-grandfather a freed slave in 1870.
“A black man and an Irish woman in Boston in 1870, that was unusual,” he said.
Ireland was very like America, he felt. There was the attachment to the land of generations and also the number of immigrants adding to the culture.
“It’s very American. We all have similar stories,” he said.
Crafts including pottery from Kenmare and local sweets were being lined up to be showcased during the four hours which were swinging to clips from all over the country from Doolin to Donegal and Dublin to Belfast.
Meanwhile, downtown Kenmare was cordoned off from 1pm to allow live feed from Henry Street; American flags flew over shopfronts and an off-season autumn bonanza had arrived in the heritage town.
This too was part of Tourism Ireland’s gameplan.
“Doing it in October was really important to us. We wanted to showcase Ireland as a year round destination,” McManamy said.
She also paid tribute to the strong local support, where the event has been greeted like the Sam Maguire.
“Kerry always pulls it out of the bag,” McManamy said.