Stephen McPhelimy – tour guide
I LIVE BETWEEN Dublin and Derry but really home is on the bus. I’m on the road all the time. I’ve an apartment in Derry that I see maybe three nights a month. From May 1st until mid-September, I won’t be there at all.
I love tour guiding. I studied history in Queens and reckoned I could become a teacher or a tour guide and, after a brief stint teaching, settled on this. I look at the bus as a mobile classroom, where the students change every week.
Paddywagon Tours started on St Patrick’s Day 1998 and I’ve been here since then.
Every tour starts in Dublin, so that’s where I’ll be at 8am
on a Monday morning, in Gardiner Street. We have 30 backpackers per trip, paying about €300 each for the tour of Ireland: six days hostel accommodation and breakfast.
They are mostly young professionals who prefer to spend their money on food and drink rather than five-star accommodation. Most are Australians, Kiwis and north Americans.
We go anti-clockwise around the country, heading up north first and around the edge to Cong, Galway, Killarney, Dingle and round to Wicklow.
Ireland’s like a doughnut – all the nice bits are round the edges. We’ve never brought a backpacker to the midlands.
What they all want to see is that remote part of Wicklow which features in PS I Love You. The film wasn't well received over here but no one appreciates just how much it has done for tourism.
When I started they’d all be aware of the North and its history, now they don’t know anything about it.
I hear so many young people coming to Europe talking about having “done” this country or that country, even if they have only spent a weekend in one of its cities. So it’s flattering that they give six days to Ireland.
Working with so many youngsters keeps me young, but we have noticed that since the recession we are getting an older demographic too.
Around one quarter of our guests now are aged between 30 and 45. I like it because it’s nice to have a mix of people.
What I love most about the job is the freedom to be out circumnavigating the country. My father worked in a shirt factory for 25 years, so by comparison, this isn’t hard.
I’m always meeting new people too. I think I’m teaching people all about Irish history and so on, but in fact I learn as much from them as they do from me. It’s a lot of fun too. Actually, it’s the greatest job in the world.
- Stephen McPhelimy is a tour guide with Paddywagon Tours
- In conversation with SANDRA O'CONNELL