This episode is with Brendan Tierney who was recommended to me by a few previous guests to interview on the show. We talked about how he ended up moving from Galway to Sligo, life in the lockdown and his passion for seeing Sligo businesses succeed plus much more.

Here is some more about Brendan and his incredible work . . .

I have a Marketing & Events Company - Fox Events & Marketing (primarily social media work but event-wise, I work with the Sligo Summer Festival as Production & Marketing Manager)

I am also a Driving Instructor or over ten years.

Last year I started the So Funny Comedy Festival in Sligo. It was successful beyond all my expectations. I had 2020 all st to go but obviously,  Covid put a stop to that.

Please share your bio and any information about your business: 

Galway man who moved to Sligo in 1999 for college and never left. Married to Niamh and have two 9 years old boys Iarlaith and Finian.

I studied an Environmental Science degree in IT Sligo, but never used it. In my second last year of my IT career, I became the student union president and this was really the start of me accidentally delving into Marketing/Events.
Worked in a variety of jobs from radio presenter, owned a print business and then Sales & Marketing for a variety of local companies before setting up my own company.

What do you love about living in Sligo?: More or less everything! I promote it to the world at any given chance.

Mainly I love the more chilled speed of life. It's like a chilled Galway eg. So much arts/music and near the sea, but we don't have their traffic.

I love the ability to be able to get to a beach, river, lake, forest trail in 5 mins from town.
I love the mix of business in town, the music scene, the theatre scene (I'm involved in a few drama groups) and the newer generation of people involved in business/politics who have breathed some fresh thinking into the town.

If you could wave a magic wand what would you fix or bring to Sligo ie. facilities, shops, restaurants, culture/arts?:

Open every dormant building in town (via grants/incentives etc)
-Get the greenway open
-Create a better connection between local businesses (promote each other), I mean a proper system where you send a visitor onto the next place/business
-Create a hub for everyone involved in theatre/arts/music. Like a building where there are studios/rehearsal rooms, storage for props/costumes, prop workshops as well as communal help for design/promotion.

What are your must-do Sligo recommendations? Restaurants/Walks etc.

I suppose my regular haunts would be
-Filans centra upstairs for a coffee. My fav coffee in town and love the large space upstairs.The Blind Tiger for same reasons.
-The Glasshouse bar area for meeting friends/business
-Hooked for brunch
-Andersons for gigs
-Fav pubs: Connollys, McLynns, Shoot The Crows
-People should try theatre more, so the Hawk's Well is special - until about 7/8 years ago, I'd never been to love theatre, I'm hooked since.
- Walks - Rosses Point 3rd beach, Hazelwood, Union Rock (Views here are unreal)
-Dive off the pier at Rosses Point

How can people find you online? 

https://www.facebook.com/brendantierneyschoolofmotoring

https://www.facebook.com/sligonow/posts/2556737154440392