Derek Devoy: 'You’d need a helicopter to explore all of Ireland.. or at least a roof!'
At Pictured Galway's Kylemore Derek Abbey
While many of us say we’d like a career where we get to call the shots and be in the driver’s seat more, few have taken that notion to heart quite as literally as Derek Devoy.
The Kilkenny man is perhaps best known for his voluntary work as founder of TaxiWatch, an organisation which strives to provide every taxi driver in Europe with suicide intervention skills and training. Set up in 2004, TaxiWatch has since taught countless drivers how to spot the signs of a passenger suffering through a suicide crisis, how to react, and how to get them to safety.
Through his incredible breakthroughs with the charity, Derek has developed a great knack for chatting and getting through to just about anyone, putting his passengers at ease and getting to know them in record time. This skill has greatly aided him in his day job, as a driver of luxury travel tours.
When he’s not busy saving lives, Derek can be found in his Mercedes Viano people carrier, expertly guiding groups of tourists along road trips of Ireland’s most beautiful landscapes. His passengers have included big names from the worlds of film, music, sport and politics, and while Derek remains tight-lipped about just how famous his clientele is at times, it’s safe to say that his service has been deemed VIP-worthy!
Regardless of who the person in the back seat is, however, Derek sees each one of them as a friend waiting to be made; “With the nature of the tours I do, you’re getting people in the car who you’ve never met before in your life and you could be in that car with them for up to two weeks,” he explains. “For us all to have a good experience, it’s important that I get to know them, talk to them, figure out what they’re used to. You have to build a friendly relationship very quickly, which is quite strange, because you have to open up yourself too! The passengers want to know about you and your family — they’re not just interested in the heritage and history of Ireland, they want to know what it’s really like to be Irish nowadays. They have a lot of questions about what it’s like to live here, what was my school like, did I learn the Irish language in school and whether I speak it now. I do form a bond with a lot of my passengers, by the end of the holiday some of them are crying and giving me big hugs when they say goodbye. I’m in many a Facebook album or Instagram post, almost like I was part of their family on the holiday!”
Many of the passengers on Derek’s tours tend to be international visitors, with the bulk of them coming from America. Meeting so many of them, and experiencing his own country through their fresh, often awestruck eyes has given him a newfound appreciation for Ireland as a whole.
“It was something that first attracted me to the role anyway, that I’d be getting paid to drive around and see the hidden gems of Ireland that you mightn’t ever see normally,” Derek shares. “The American tourists really kick that up a notch, though. They’re great for researching — they come with a load of maps and books and have every single place laid out. They get into the car with a clear idea of where they want to go and what they want to do there, so I’ve actually seen a lot of places for the very first time thanks to those groups. We’ve visited places that I would never have even thought of. For instance, I only recently visited the Baltimore Beacon down in West Cork, and it’s just an absolutely beautiful area, a lovely part of the country. I do think we as Irish people can take for granted sometimes just how great Ireland is, I’ve been guilty of it myself. Despite all the problems we have at the moment, it is a beautiful country. If we could put a roof over it now, it’d be perfect!”
As well as the stunning scenery, what Derek believes sets Ireland apart is the standard of hospitality here; ”A lot of American tourists have steered away from, shall we say, the leprechaun side of Ireland. They’ve really moved on and they don’t want to see the cliché stuff, they want to experience the real Ireland. I’m noticing they want to go to proper pubs, they don’t want the gimmicky bars with the diddly dee music. They just want to go somewhere they can sit down, have a few drinks and a nice meal. I think Irish restaurants, the people we have working in them and the great service they provide, are what international visitors really come for. I mean, if you want to see the Cliffs of Moher you can see them on Google, but what they actually want is to come see people face to face and mingle, to get to know the Irish people. They love it.”
The only thing Derek’s passengers don’t love about Ireland, however, is the current scarcity and high price of accommodation; “I think it’s already something that really stops Irish people from exploring what we have at home holiday-wise and I fear it’ll soon start turning international visitors away too,” he admits. “It’d be great if the government were more flexible with planning permission, say for the likes of log cabins and things, because people really like glamping and those more adventurous options. Some solution really needs to be found, because at the moment it feels like people are really being pushed away from Ireland because there’s nowhere to stay, especially in the beautiful rural areas where there’s not many hotels or B&Bs to choose from.”
Finding accommodation across the country is a particular concern on Derek’s tours, as they cover an awful lot of ground during some of the longer road trips, taking breaks overnight while they spend a week or two exploring county to county. Meeting so many tourists who each have their own different bucket lists of must-see locations around Ireland can prove challenging at times.
“Normally on a tour, we’d start in Dublin and then move down towards Kilkenny, then on to Cork, Cork up to Limerick, then Limerick over to Galway and Clare, up to Donegal, up to the Giant’s Causeway, then down to Belfast, down to Wicklow and then back to Dublin Airport,” Derek explains. “That’s obviously going to be a big tour and a lot of days travelling. The days can be long, you’re driving for about nine hours most days. It depends, some people just don’t understand how far Cork is from Limerick when they see it on a map, or sometimes people want to check off all these counties in one day and you’d lust laugh, obviously Ireland is far bigger than they first thought. You’d need a helicopter really to do it all in one day!”
Whether you are indeed in a helicopter, or in a car, on horseback, or whatever else, Derek is confident that he can nail down the perfect trip of Ireland for anyone; “I’d definitely say you should go see the Giant’s Causeway for a start, I really think it’s unlike anything else you’ll see in the world. I tell every single person to go see Kilkenny Castle too. People always love it, there’s probably a hundred coaches outside it every single day. It’s really popular and there’s a fascinating history to the place that interests a lot of visitors.
“Tourists have an awful tendency to fly into Dublin and just stay there for the few days but never explore beyond that. Dublin is wonderful, but I always say it’s just one aspect of what Ireland’s like, you really have to get out of Dublin to see the rest of it. The Cliffs of Moher are also one of the spots that tourists are always dying to see, and for good reason. That part of the country is just unbelievable. I personally love Lahinch in Clare, Doolin is a gorgeous little town too. The entire West Coast is a must-see really. You can’t go wrong with the Wild Atlantic Way, either. Dingle is fantastic, I love it there. There’s really too much to recommend! The only thing I would say is there’s something for everyone. Even if you’ve lived in Ireland all your life and think you’ve seen it all, I guarantee you haven’t. With so many people travelling across the world to come see Ireland, I suppose we’d be mad if we didn’t explore it ourselves too.”