Fitzpatrick’s in Rockmarshall
A massive social media campaign has begun to try and convince Fitzpatrick’s Bar and Restaurant to bring back their popular Halloween and Christmas grottos later this year.
Following criticism from a select few of this year’s events on Facebook and Trip Advisor, the Rockmarshall venue’s owner Danny Fitzpatrick took to Facebook yesterday to announce that he was pulling the plug on the Halloween and Christmas displays, which attracted huge interest in recent months.
Danny said he and his team had invested over €25,000 in the displays as part of a four year plan.
While he admitted in his post that there were some minor issues, he believed this was part of a learning curve and “going forward in years to come they would be corrected.”
Amongst the criticisms of the display were its price but Mr Fitzpatrick insisted that he felt it was reasonable, especially as huge sums were raised for charity on the back of the displays.
He said: “I feel it necessary to address the price issue. The price was €12.50 per child which included a child’s breakfast / juice, and a quality toy. We have had very positive feedback on the pricing of the Christmas event. There was an option of a fully cooked children’s breakfast, pancakes and cereal.
“Due to the amount of people who have “hopped on the band wagon” and the amount of negativity that has been displayed on the Facebook page I myself have taken the very sad decision to cancel all future events at Halloween and Christmas.
“It is with deep regret I do this as at Halloween 2013 we raised €7014.00 for Temple Street children’s Hospital (proof of this will be displayed). At Christmas 2013 we also raised €645 (again proof will be displayed) for the charity Aware.”
Since his post yesterday afternoon, Fitzpatrick’s have received huge support with people flocking to the page encouraging Danny to change his mind.
To date there have been over 3,500 likes for the post, with almost 600 comments mainly encouraging him to keep what was a popular event going.
You can follow the post yourself on the Fitzpatrick’s Facebook page here
