Thomas Wilmot - the popular Scot who became a star by the sea in Bundoran

The sad passing of Thomas Wilmot from Kinlough, Co Leitrim, on December 11 sent shockwaves throughout the North West. 

Thomas was known as the genial face of the Adventure Park on the seafront in Bundoran. Originally from Scotland, Thomas first visited Bundoran 30 years ago when he received a tip-off that Bundoran was crying out for new rides at the fun fair then owned by the Harrison family. 

He came over ‘cold turkey’, introduced himself and worked in partnership with the Harrisons before his company eventually bought over the Park several years later. There has been much talk in recent times about immigrants to Ireland.  An immigrant is described as a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

Thomas was one of the first immigrants to Bundoran and only last week the Taoiseach publicly acknowledged that the country had benefitted so much from migration many of whom had contributed enormously to enhancing the lives of residents and communities. 

Locals were extremely fortunate that Thomas chose south Donegal as his destination of choice as his contribution to this region in the intervening years is immeasurable. Not only did he grow the economy of the region, create jobs and enhance the tourism experience for visitors to Bundoran but he became a friend to many of us and greatly enriched our lives by simply being one of us.

He was a quietly spoken entrepreneur and his modus operandi was that you didn’t have to be the loudest voice in the room to make a difference. His listening skills were one of his strengths and he often observed that the best thing you can do is to turn down the volume so that you can hear what others are saying

At the time of his passing, and in line with the County Development Plan and the Bundoran Tourism Masterplan, Thomas had ambitious plans to extend the Adventure Park as Bundoran’s premium family fun area and turn it into a small theme park. His plans included growing the park with 50 activities and rides many of them enclosed.  His target was to grow visitor numbers to over 200,000 per annum and to double the workforce in the Park.

He spent his life in the Adventure Park business managing Adventure Parks, Amusement Parks and Fun Fairs both in Ireland and the UK. He has been managing and developing the Adventure Park in Bundoran since the early 1990s.

Over the years he has added major attractions to the Park increasing its attractiveness and trebling the number of visitors to it. He invested millions of euros in the past number of years to bring the Park to today’s state of development. The Park is run from March to September and as a result, contributes much more in added value to the town of Bundoran.

Thomas was also a very generous man, very caring and understanding of the big issues facing all of us. 

A cancer awareness event was held in the Abbey Centre, Ballyshannon on May 13, to raise awareness of the support services available locally for people encountering difficulties because of a cancer diagnosis. He approached us to say he wanted to help and that this message needed to be relayed to a much wider audience.  Accordingly, Thomas arranged that Ocean FM do a live two-hour broadcast from the event and just quietly paid for that himself. 

This is just one example of his many acts of generosity over the years which included supporting a plethora of charities, sporting organizations and schools in the local area.

He did a piece to camera at the cancer event where he spoke about men’s health and the need to look after ourselves as men tended to put things on the long finger. There is a well-known quote that says we cannot throw out a single page of our life but we can throw the whole book in the fire.

 There is no grief like the grief that does not speak as the life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.

Thomas’s funeral service took place in his native Stirling, in Scotland, this morning. God bless you Thomas may you rest in peace.