This article is from page 32 of the 2008-06-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 32 JPG
IT’S official, Ennistymon is now one of a set of triplets after formalising it’s twinned status with the town of Schimatari in Greece last month.
A large delegation from Ennisty- mon including Cllr Flan Garvey (FF) traveled to Greece to sign the twinning pact and meet the Greek locals. Both towns are also twinned with Pozzoleone in Italy, making En- nistymon Clare’s first ever “triplet- ted” town.
‘This trip was really to set the twin- ning in stone.
“We have now completed the tri-
angle between all of the towns,” said Caroline Heuston of the Ennistymon Twinning Association.
‘They are a very hospitable people over there. They organised a number of tours for us – we went to Delphi and Athens – and they organised a formal evening for us with their may- or and their local politicians.”
“There was traditional Greek and Irish dancing taking place and we all had a lot of fun.” Besides the social benefits, this new relationship also promises to be good for business in Ennistymon and north Clare.
‘The idea is that individuals make contact and keep in touch. While
over there we stayed with ten or elev- en different families and built up a network of people over there,’ con- tinued Caroline.
“It’s a very down to earth thing. It’s all about making links between com- munity groups in both places and not just the core group of people involved in the actual twinning.”
“This is something that could have a benefit for the local tourism and the tourism in the area in the future. Now they know where Ennistymon is – before this they probably didn’t know anything about Ireland outside of Dublin and now at least they know where we are.”
MFaW ie LM NOL MUR MO Slo OPM BOSD MBM OILERS and family will know about Clare and may come and visit in the future. So it is something that we could see a very positive outcome from.”
While no return trip has been or- ganised to date, the members of the Ennistymon Twinning Association are keen to have their Greek friends over to north Clare again soon.
“We don’t now yet about how this will evolve in the future but we would be very keen,’ continued Caroline.
“We would certainly like to have them over here in the future and re- turn the hospitality that they showed us while we were over there.”