‘Massive opportunity’ for town in Carlow as twinning with Spanish town confirmed

Tullow in County Carlow is set to twin with the Spanish town of Maria de Huerva, it has been confirmed.

Elected members voted in favour of the twinning of the two towns at the March plenary meeting of Carlow County Council.

However, independent councillor Will Paton expressed some reservations over the planned move.

Cllr Paton said: “I would express some reservations about this in a sense that it’s not very clear what the objectives of this are.

“I think one of the things that the key to a successful twinning is the involvement of the community and the citizens and so far, it’s just been a matter for Carlow County Council.

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“There’s been very little involvement of the community. As far as I know, the only involvement that I came across is that the Tullow Development Association met a delegation.”

He outlined a website that lists ten key factors of success for town twinnings and argued that this twinning doesn't include those factors.

He gave the example of Dublin City Council, which outlines a series of key objectives when it comes to its twinning process.

‘So I would have some concerns and I’m nervous about going forward without clearly understanding what the objectives of this proposal are,” Cllr Paton added.

However, Fine Gael councillor Ben Ward welcomed the twinning proposal, describing it as a “big opportunity” for a town which has been “lacking and lagging” behind.

He went on to rebuke the comments made by Cllr Paton, arguing that a broad engagement process has been undertaken.

Cllr Ward said: “We’ve had extensive engagement between our town and their town, but also extensive engagement between their citizens and our citizens.

“It’s completely disingenuous for Cllr Paton to say there’s been no engagement with the public because he hasn’t shown up to any of the engagements that we’ve tried to have.

“We met with the Develop Tullow Association alongside the Mayor of Maria and officials from there. We also met with local historians in Tullow, [such as] Christie McQuinn.”

He continued by outline some more of the engagements that were organised between the two local authorities and the people of Tullow.

“We had a tour of the whole town of Tullow with a delegation that came over from Maria. We met with Carlow County Chamber, so we can create business links between the town of Maria and Tullow.

“We also attended Tullow Culture Night - a brilliant event that was carried out in conjunction with the council and the local community organisations in Tullow where the delegation came and met with all the public.

“Alongside that then, we’ve had engagement with the councillors and representatives from the council. So there’s been extensive engagement and that’s just on the Tullow side of it.”

Cllr Ward concluded by encouraging his colleagues to support the twinning proposal, describing it as a “massive opportunity” for the town.

These sentiments were echoed by his party colleague, Cllr Brian O’Donoghue, who also supported the proposed twinning.

However, he said there was “no harm” in noting Cllr Paton’s queries, adding that there is “no doubt he has Tullow’s best interests at heart”.

He continued by outlining why Maria de Huerva was chosen and how the twinning came about.

Cllr O’Donoghue said: “I was chair in Tullow when this twinning first came about. There was a Carlow native who resides over there who reached out.

“He was aware obviously being from Carlow of some of the similarities in terms of size and the types of enterprise and different things that go on.

“There was months and months and weeks and weeks of follow ups. My colleague Cllr Ward has done exemplary work on this and has really taken the baton on it and I want to applaud him for it.”

He went on to say that whilst the twinning might not be perfect, it should still be supported by all councillors.

“It’s possible that it might not work out. I can’t think of too many twinnings that are absolutely an abundance of riches for any particular county.

“I think Tullow deserves this twinning. We’ve had extensive engagement and it really should be supported by all.”

At the end of the discussion, the twinning was unanimously agreed by all elected members present at the meeting.