Local Expert Provides Heartbreaking Fungie Update And Dark Prediction

A local Fungie expert has provided an update on the situation in Dingle today, and it’s not positive.

As the weeks pass since the decades-old dolphin sighting, local marine biologist Dr. Kevin Flannery said it is increasingly unlikely that Fungie will ever again be seen at home at the mouth of Dingle Harbor.

“I don’t think there is any hope that it will return at this stage,” Dr Flannery told the Irish Mirror.

And it issued a dark prediction for the city of Dingle, which built a tourism industry around Fungie for decades, if the dolphin doesn’t return and Covid-19 restrictions aren’t lifted.

Christmas and New Years Eve, said Dr Flannery, are great sources of business for the city of Co Kerry, but unless Ireland can fall below Level Three in its Living with Covid plan, visitors from all over Ireland that normally crowds the streets will be little more than a memory of this festive period.

“If we are not out of Level Three, with the dolphin missing, wow. It will be a major catastrophe for the hotel and tourism industry,” said Dr. Flannery.

“Dingle is reserved during the Christmas period,” he added.

“It’s a great, great, great time for the locals and people coming home, with all the pubs, restaurants and everything filling up because of the two big festivals.”

With those big days potentially canceled and the odds of Fungie coming back looking increasingly slim, Dr. Flannery anticipates a difficult winter for a city that has long been one of the most charming in Ireland.

“At this point, they have to move on without the dolphin,” he said. “And that is.”

Should the worst happen, with no dolphins or visitors, there is a possibility that financial assistance will be provided to the city, as previously reported by the Irish Mirror.

Councilman Breandán Fitzgerald told the Mirror last month that he will push for state aid for the city if Fungie does not return.

“Some people tell me that 50 to 100 direct jobs are linked to Fungie, but I would almost say that everything is linked to Fungie,” he said.