About me
- Offaly GAA
- Sean-Nós ’17 & ’18
- Jiving ’14
I grew up in Offaly, played for my county, and learned to dance before I learned to drive. The dancing stuck: All-Ireland Jiving Champion in 2014, and All-Ireland Sean-Nós Champion in 2017 and 2018. Sean-nós is the old way — solo, low to the floor, learned in kitchens. You can’t buy your way into it, and that’s the point.
Seven years ago I started travelling Ireland with American visitors, and I saw the same thing over and over: good people, planning the trip of their lives, handed off to whichever company shouted loudest online. Some got lucky. Plenty didn’t. The difference was never the price — it was who was actually driving, cooking, answering the phone.
So I made it my job to choose the right one for you. I work with two or three Irish tour companies — small, family-run, the kind where the owner’s name is on the van and the standard is personal. I’m not paid to steer you to anyone; I’m paid to match you well. And once you land, I’m your man in Ireland: one number, answered by me, at any hour.
If we’ve never spoken, start with the planner or justcall me. I’d rather hear your story than send you a brochure.
Why “independent” matters
A booking site earns when you click. A tour operator earns when you buy their tour. I only do well when the match is right — because my name and my reputation are the entire business. That’s why there are only two or three partners, and why I’ll tell you plainly when something isn’t worth your money.
What “Brendan Tour Specialist” is — and isn’t
Brendan Tour Specialist is me, Brendan Cocoman, working as an independent Irish tour specialist for American visitors. It isn’t a tour operator and it isn’t a booking site. The trips are delivered by two or three family-run Irish companies I’ve vetted over seven years on the road; I match you to the right one, they build and price your itinerary in US dollars, and I stay your point of contact from the day you land.
The kinds of trip I plan most: private, chauffeur-driven toursof the west coast; links golf weeksbuilt around Ballybunion, Lahinch and Adare; roots and ancestry tripsthat start with a surname; and three-generation family tripswhere nobody is dragged and nobody is bored. If you’re still working out what yours is, theguides are where I’ve written down the answers I give on the phone.