Twinning with Tempe
THE
influence of Bishop Doyle (JKL)
may soon extend beyond the grave
if a project being pursued by a couple from Arizona comes to fruition.
Dr
Waiter O'Hayre, great great grandson of JKL's half sister, spent some
weeks in Carlow recently along with his wife Marlene. Both are involved
with the Phoenix Sister Cities Commission.
They
were looking at the possibility of twinning Carlow with the town of
Tempe, a large suburb of Phoenix.
The
couple were responding to a request from the international president of
the Sister City organisation who just happens to live in Tempe to: "find
me something special"
"We
were in Carlow about three years ago and think it is a magnificent
town," says Walter.
He grew
up with the idea that being related to a Bishop in Ireland was "somehow
significant" and that Carlow was a sort of "Shangri La across the
Atlantic."
Tempe
is a university city of 60,000, including 35,000 students, and is
already twinned with towns in Mexico, China and Japan,
The
emphasis is on cultural, educational, tourist and economic development
and the benefits to a town like Carlow could be significant. The city of
Phoenix was recently twinned with Ennis, Co. Clare, and the organisation
has already arranged trips for 500 tourists to the town.
"People
want to be able to take their time, play a round of golf and, if
necessary, trace their ancestors with the help of Michael Purcell in
your heritage centre. You know he has documents in there that are over
200 years old," he says in amazement.
Walter
and Marlene intend recommending that a delegation be sent from Tempe to
Carlow immediately upon their return.
Mr
Purcell said: "Establishing this type of connection emphasises the
necessity of setting up a properly
functioning genealogical centre for Co. Carlow. We look forward to being
able to accommodate people like Walter and Marlene at the new
genealogical office which, we hope, will be included in the plans for
Carlow's new civic centre."
Michael Purcell
Note from Michael Brennan:
As part of the European wide Town Twinning Associations,
Carlow Town is twinned with Dole in the Dijon Region in France since
1992. In 1993 the Town twinned with Northwich in Cheshire, England.
Tempe, Arizona, USA is linked to the Town through the Sister Cities
Programme since 1998. Annually during the summer student exchanges take
place between
Please report any images or broken links which do not open to
mjbrennan30@gmail.com
- The information contained in these
pages is provided solely for the purpose of sharing with
others researching their ancestors in Ireland.
- © 2001 Ireland Genealogy Projects,
IGP TM By
Pre-emptive Copyright - All rights reserved