By Gerard Quinlan

It was decided that we would as a group of tour guides run some walks to engage ourselves with the business of tour guiding. ‘If you don’t use it you lose it’ and so it was that my turn to guide came around and I was proud to put together a tour of the capital of Fingal: Swords.I engaged with Fingal County Council and officials in the castle as to the feasibility of doing this tour. Anyway, the appointed day the 16 of July duly arrived and all eight of us met up on the Main Street. Withthe expressed wishes to keep a safe distance in mind we meandered through some narrow streets and observed the health yielding distance throughout. I had three readings which my female colleagues delivered with aplomb. Nicola Carroll of Artful Tours, Adrienne McEnally and finally Odette Gormley delivered extracts and poetry to enliven the experience.But first the plight of the Lord Mayor’s was aired and the source of the name Swords was made clear. Francis Johnson’s architecture was delved and the beauty of the town commented on while we saunteredin the wonderful afternoon July sunshine. The monastic richness of Swords echoed in the giant round tower that pierced a blue sky.The castle was toured and Adrienne McEnally read: A song of Swords by G.K. Chesterton. The iconic park area called Rock Garden proved of major interest to the tree loving Matt Nolan who came all the way from Mullingar to hear about Swords. Ger Healy and Conor Hegarty whose photo enhances this article came on bicycles from Ashbourne and Howth respectively. John O’Connor hailed from Kilbarrack. The group gathered in the Gourmet Food Parlour before the walk. On completion we enjoyedthe outside evening sunshine with pints in the magical courtyard of the Carnegie Court Hotel.As a group of people in the tourist industry we have enjoyed the Irish summer constructively with our tours of Howth, Mullingar, Tara and Dublin City. If you need a tour of the city, north county or further afield you can catch us at tourlekela.gmail.com