This article is from page 62 of the 2008-08-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 62 JPG
THE Mayor of Clare met with the Mayor of Chicago last Tuesday in a bid to strengthen business and tour- ism links between Clare and the US mid-west.
Councillor Madeleine Taylor- Quinn’s meeting with Mayor Rich- ard M Daley in Chicago’s City Hall formed part of a week-long promo- tional trip by Clare County Council to Illinois and Wisconsin.
The council delegation attended the Milwaukee Irish Fest, the world’s largest Irish culture festival, where it
conducted a promotional campaign aimed at highlighting Clare as a tourist destination.
Mayor Taylor-Quinn described her meeting with Mayor Daly, a third- generation Irish American, as ‘pro- ductive’ and added that she was con- fident it would reap benefits for the local economy.
“We agreed that the retention and development of existing air services between Chicago O’Hare Airport and Shannon was a priority for the economies of the regions served by the two airports,” she said.
“T explained how it was imperative
that assurances were sought from airlines operating out of Shannon, especially Aer Lingus, that existing services will be maintained into the GULAbD aoe
“If they are curtailed then I fear that Clare’s economy will suffer immensely with the potential loss of millions of euro and hundreds of jobs,’ continued Mayor ‘Taylor- Quinn.
Both Mayors also discussed the lat- est tourism figures showing that the number of American tourists to Ire- land has fallen dramatically — lead- ing to the first drop in tourist revenue
in four years.
The meeting concluded with Mayor Daley being invited to visit Clare in the near future.
Clare County Manager, Alec Flem- ing said he was delighted Mayor Daley had accepted the council’s invitation to meet with Mayor Tay- lor-Quinn, as part of the delegation’s promotional efforts.
“The meeting was a wonderful op- portunity for the council to showcase Clare’s economic and tourism poten- tial and follows a successful tourism promotional campaign undertaken by the delegation at the Milwaukee
Irish Fest.’
“It is anticipated that work car- ried out by the Clare delegation at this year’s festival will help build on the estimated 3,000 US tourists who holidayed in the west of Ireland as a result of our promotional campaign in Wisconsin last year,’ concluded Mr Fleming.
Over 140,000 people attend the Milwaukee Irish Fest, which show- cased Irish music, history, dance, sports and various other aspects of the Irish culture. Among the featured acts at the festival were the Kilfenora Céili Band.