‘I will be extremely disappointed if we don’t get 850,000 or 860,000 visitors’ – Charles Coyle on Emerald Park’s annual ambitions

Charles Coyle has inherited his late father’s boundless enthusiasm for heading one of Ireland’s leading tourist attractions

Behind the scenes at Emerald Park as new roller coasters set to open this May

John Mulligan

In December 2008, I stood outside the Tayto factory with Ray Coyle as we wrapped up an interview. The entrepreneur, who died in 2022, gestured to the fields opposite, where bison grazed lazily and the late winter sun cast a golden veil over the land.

He planned to build a Native American theme park there, at a cost of about €8m. It seemed bonkers. Coyle hoped to eventually have 100,000 people visit every year.