It's no joke if Leitrim has fallen off the tourist map

Comic Katherine sticks up for her shunned county

- BY SEAN MURPHY

LEITRIM comedian Katherine Lynch has laughed off a shock survey that revealed Asia is visited more often than her home county.

This newspaper revealed that research by Airbnb showed that more Irish people have visited sprawling Asia (25%) than lovely Leitrim (18%).

Tourism bosses hope for a surge of interest in the county later this month when the two-day Leitrim Gathering is held from May 23 to celebrate the county's "diversity and richness".

Award-winning personality Katherine, 53, who is from Mohill in Co Leitrim, said: "People are missing a lot.

"They are missing Glencar waterfall; Mohill, which is probably the capital of Leitrim; and we've got Lough Rynn.

TRAFFIC

"We've got great hotels. They're fantastic and we've got great people, that's the most important thing, and we have the Leitrim Gathering soon."

The Airbnb survey claimed 82% of people in Ireland have never visited Leitrim - prompting Katherine to joke: "How much more abuse can we take?"

It is not clear if the participants could specify if they were in Leitrim for a stag or hen party in Carrick on Shannon or if they have driven from Dublin to Sligo on the N4, which goes through Leitrim.

Katherine revealed some top features of Leitrim, including its secret four-kilometre coastline and famous writer and novelist John McGahern, who died in 2006.

She also joked about Leitrim, which various Census results have recorded to be the county with Ireland's smallest population, not getting its first set of traffic lights until 2016.

The lights were first announced in 2003 when a council spokesperson said: "It's progress. People have to cross the road."