West Kerry stays in touch with twin towns

PEOPLE in West Kerry’s overseas twin towns are all doing well, even though some are in countries severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Several communities in West Kerry have twin towns and villages in France, Italy, the USA and Spain and the lines of communication are being kept open as people stay in touch during these difficult times.

The gaeltacht twinning group has been in touch with Tolfa north of Rome, where the locals are faring relatively well despite the growing death toll in Italy. Tolfa’s cultural attaché Angela Ceccarelli said there are six coronavirus cases in the small town where residents have been confined to their homes since Tuesday, March 10. In nearby Civitavecchia, which is a major destination for cruise ships, there are 100 cases.

From Brittany Anne Auffrett has been in contact with Seán and Frances Uí Chinneide in Dún Chaoin to report that the people of rural central Brittany were fine and their gardens and houses had never received as much attention.

Meanwhile, Sean Cahalane, President of the Irish Cultural Centre in West Springfield, and Mairéad Pheats Tom Kearney are both in good health, according to Mairéad de Staic who has been talking to them on the phone.

Caroline Boland of Dingle Peninsula Tourism has also been in contact with West Springfield and has been told of widespread public health fears amid an ongoing lockdown of the town.

Further west in Santa Barbara, former mayor Helene Schneider told Mairéad de Staic that people there are well, but worried. “Let’s hope this pandemic can blow away as fast as the wind we encountered that day around the peninsula,” she told Mairéad.

Twinnings have been taking place between areas in West Kerry since 1990, opening up lasting cultural exchanges and friendships. A group of villages west of Dingle twinned with five villages in central Brittany in 1990/1991 and then with Tolfa in Italy in 1999/2000. The five villages were Baile ‘n Fheirtéaraigh, Fionn Trá, Dún Chaoin, Muiríoch and Feothanach and their Breton counterparts were Saint Servais, Mael Pestivien, Bulat Pestivien, St. Nicodeme and Pont Melvez. Dingle became a sister city of Santa Barbara, California, in 2003 and put West Kerry’s strong traditional links with West Springfield on a formal footing in 2017. Cloghane and Brandon are twinned with Plozevet in Brittany, Castlegregory is twinned with St. Columban (also in Brittany) and Camp is twinned with Glomel in Brittany and Tazones in Northern Spain.