Town twinnings in Mayo being assessed

TOWN twinnings across Mayo are being looked at to see how they can be reinvigorated, with community buy-in a key component.

Their importance was highlighted during a discussion on Mayo Day and engaging with the diaspora during a meeting of Mayo County Council's Corporate, Education, Culture, Heritage and Library Services Strategic Policy Committee.

Committee member Tony Deffley explained how he had been involved in the Castlebar - Hochstedt twinning, visiting there on a number of occasions, and there had been a very strong relationship between the two towns.

But the nature of twinnings is that they sometimes run out of steam, and he asked if the committee could look at twinnings across the county to ascertain their current status and how they are being managed.

He wondered if there was a best practice model that could be applied in the future or in revitalising some of the existing links.

“We are part of Europe and it is important we establish and maintain and reinvigorate those links we have,” said Mr. Deffley.

Director of services Catherine McConnell said the council is looking at all those twinnings it is involved in. She suggested a report might be available for the next committee meeting.

Twinnings work best, she commented, when owned and driven by the community.

Council to council was great, but community to community was always better, she acknowledged.