ESB saves the day for Banagher visitors
ESB has a new number one fan, after it re-arranged works to ensure a holiday surprise could go ahead as planned.
Sixty-five-year-old Peter Downey owns the luxury self catering house Riverside Paradise near Banagher. Last week the house played host to a family of ten spanning three generations from the UK.
One of the guests - Ray - arranged a special holiday surprise for his family for last Thursday, which included a Shannon cruise from the house’s private jetty before returning to a sumptious meal cooked by a local chef, and even travelled to Banagher last February to ensure everything was in place for the treat.
ESB works had been planned for the area the previous week, but after they - and a resulting power cut in the area - were re-scheduled for last Thursday Peter decided to see if he could save his guest’s holiday surprise.
After two attempts he managed to do just that, without his guests ever knowing their treat was under threat, and he’s since lauded ESB in his very first blog post.
After first being told work wouldn’t be re-scheduled, Peter tried again last Tuesday.
“I felt so sorry for Ray and his family’s surprise but my own stomach was full of butterflies having to tell him of the ESB planned work on Thursday,” Peter describes in his blog. “Being a very positive person, I decided to try and reverse the situation again.”
“I said that sometimes it is necessary to look at the human side of a request and put the commercial need to one side, for another day,” he explained.
Whatever Peter said worked. Later that day he was told the work was to be arranged for another day, and his guests got to enjoy their surprise without knowing how close it had come to being cancelled.
“It just showed that there’s a humane side to large companies as well,” Peter told the Offaly Independent. “I do believe that abroad people think Irish people go the extra mile. Irish people do have that little bit of magic. We will try. We listen to people, and if it’s possible we’ll make it happen.”
More information on Riverside Paradise is available at www.riversideparadise.com.