To each Member of the International Relations Committee

Transcription

1 COMHAIRLE CATHRACH CHORCAÍ CORK CITY COUNCIL To each Member of the International Relations Committee TWINNING ACTIVITY REPORT 2015 Coventry Chairperson of the Cork Coventry committee, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy visited Coventry in March. A series of meetings with key personnel from Coventry were arranged for Cllr. McCarthy, including with Mr. Maqsood, Head of Housing regarding homelessness strategy and social housing allocation procedures, Mr. Nutall, Head of Sport, Culture, Destination and Business Relationships regarding the Coventry Tourism Strategy and the City s bid for UK Capital of Culture. Cllr. McCarthy had a tour of the city centre transport museum which Coventry are trying to make a must see attraction in their city. Cllr. McCarthy met with Mr. Hood, Head of Streetpride and Greenspaces and his team. Mr. Hood outlined the public park strategies and the community projects his team puts on in the public parks in Coventry. The Lord Mayor, Cllr. Hazel Noonan hosted lunch for Cllr McCarthy and other invited guests including Coventry Councillors and representatives of the Coventry Irish Society. Cllr. McCarthy met Parmy Singh, Business Development Advisor and Ms. Barlow, Principal Private Secretary to the Lord Mayoralty where they discussed Coventry s twinning relationships. Cllr. McCarthy also had a walking tour of the city kindly provided by Cllr. Bailey. 2 Athletes from Coventry travelled to Cork for the City Marathon. They were Amanda Deavy Half Marathon 1h24 47 achieved 1 st place overall in her category and Jonathan Philips Half Marathon 1h11 23 achieved 7 th place overall in half marathon. The athletes paid a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor Cllr. Mary Shields. A group of 8 Cork musicians travelled to Coventry for the Warwick Folk Festival in July. A delegation from Cork visited Coventry in November to attend commemorative ceremonies to make the 7 5th anniversary of the Blitz. The delegation travelling comprised the Ard-Mhéara, the Lady Mayoress, and Noreen Mulcahy, City Council. Rennes: The Rennes Tourism Fair took place in January The City Council had a prominent stand in a good location at the fair. The fair provided the opportunity

2 to showcase Cork, and much promotional literature and brochures were sourced and available in French. In June, a number of athletes from Rennes took part in the Cork City Marathon. They were a professor and coach from the University of Rennes and 7 students. They were 1. Alain Moreac Marathon 3h Yannick Beauvir Half Marathon 1h20 1 st place in his category and 19 th place overall in half marathon 3. Charlotte Bagnard Half Marathon 2 hr 4. Marine Douchet Half Marathon 1h42 5. Thomas La Riviére Half Marathon 1h38 6. Benjamin Bouillie Half Marathon 1h22 7. Ophéie Letellier Half Marathon 1h45 8. Élisabeth Le Glass Half Marathon 2 hr 9. Maël Audoin de L Istic Half Marathon 1h50 The athletes paid a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor Cllr. Mary Shields. Members of the Cork-Rennes Sub Committee were also in attendance for this meeting. St. Yves Day 3 Rennes musicians travelled to Cork for St. Yves Day events. The musicians performed to a full house on Saturday 23 rd May in the Franciscan Well, North Mall. On Sunday they performed at both the Spailpin Fanach and Sin E pubs. On Monday 25 th May they paid a courtesy visit to City Hall and met with the Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr K O Flynn, members of the committee and Cllrs K McCarthy and F Dennehy. The group gave a fantastic display in the office performing some traditional Breton tunes. On Monday afternoon day they went to UCC for a workshop and met with the head of the music department. Discussions took place on a collaboration between Breton and Cork musicians. A delegation from ENS (Ecole Normale Superieure de Rennes) Rennes visited UCC on the 15 th of April and it was agreed at that point that a formal agreement with UCC would be implemented. Arising from this, the agreement was put on a formal footing with the signing of an MOU by the President of UCC Dr Michael Murphy and President of ENS Rennes Professor Patrice Quinton in the late summer. Accompanied by Liam Marnane UCC, Prof Quinton and his colleague Ms Brid France-Piquet also paid a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor Cllr Mayor Shields in the afternoon. Rennes Committee member Liam Marnane was highly instrumental in making this partnership happen Vicky McNulty from the Rennes-Cork sub-committee visited Cork in July and met with the Cork-Rennes Sub Committee.

3 Cologne: In February, a City Council Senior Engineer travelled to Cologne to attend a seminar on flooding. A letter of greeting/best wishes was given to him for presentation to Cologne Mayor, Mayor Roters. The Lord Mayor, Cllr. Mary Shields visited Cologne in March as a guest of Mrs Brigitte Wagner- Halswick, the German Honorary Consul General of Ireland to attend a reception organised to mark St. Patricks Day and hosted by Mrs. Wagner- Halswick. These receptions provide wonderful networking opportunities with the business, social and political community of Cologne. In April, the Atrium in City Hall played host to an exhibition of celebrated Cologne graphic artist and photographer, René Böll. The Sister city associations/committees in both cities worked together to bring the exhibition to fruition. The exhibition entitled Cilliní of Achill Island and Currane was launched by the Lord Mayor in the Atrium, on Thursday, April 2 nd, The exhibition comprised both paintings and photographic works. A large crowd of over 100 people gathered in City Hall for the official launch. Special guests on the evening included the artist Mr. Böll, members of the Cologne Cork Sister City Committee who travelled to Cork for the official launch including Monica Tonger, Chairperson, and her husband, and Mr. Matthias Welpmann, Councillor in Cologne City Council and Ms. Gabriele Kaiser, Official in Cologne City Council in the Office of International Relations. The delegation from Cologne numbered approximately 50 people. The delegation paid a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor and were taken on a walking tour of the City provided by Cllr. Kieran McCarthy. The delegation from Cologne spent the following day sightseeing in and around Cork. The group departed Cork on April 4 th after spending 2 nights in the City. 2 athletes travelled from Cologne to Cork for the city marathon in June. They were Daniel Kaiser Marathon 3h45 24 and Saskia Plaszek Half Marathon 2h The athletes paid a courtesy visit to the Lord Mayor Cllr. Mary Shields. Members of the Cork-Cologne Sub Committee were also in attendance for this meeting. Students from Cork travelled to Cologne in February as part of a Cork-Cologne school exchange and work experience programme that has been running for the past 17 + years. Students from Douglas Community School, Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh and Christ the King School took part this year. The students spent half of the exchange in the Herder Gymnasium in Cologne and the other half on work experience. The students from the Herder Gymnasium paid a reciprocal visit to Cork in October and likewise spent half of their time in their exchange partner schools and the other half on work experience. The group paid a visit to the Ard

4 Mhéara, Cllr. Chris O Leary on 20 th October, This visit was assisted under the Twinning grant scheme. San Francisco Twelve members of the City Fire Brigade travelled to San Francisco in March to take part in the City s St. Patrick s Day parade. The group met and marched with the San Francisco Fire Service in the parade. The group also met with Mayor Lee of San Francisco and Kathleen Manning, Parade co-ordinator. The group also met with the San Francisco Chief Fire Officer, Joanne Hayes-White and extended an invitation to her for members of the San Francisco fire brigade to visit Cork to promote and foster links between the two cities. The Chief Fire Officer also organised a fire boat trip around the San Francisco Bay area for the visiting delegation. In May, a delegation from Cork including the Lord Mayor, Cllr. Mary Shields, Ms. Ann Doherty, Chief Executive, Cork City Council, Mr. Barrie O Connell, President Cork Chamber of Commerce and Ms. Adrienne Rodgers, Head of Enterprise, Local Enteprise Office, Cork City visited San Francisco from 24 th May- 29 th May 2015 for a series of business meetings. The delegation also paid a courtesy visit to Mayor Lee. The full report on the visit was presented to the International Relations Committee in June. Following an invitation from Mayor Lee, the Ard Mhéara, Cllr. Chris O Leary and Director of Services, Jim O Donovan travelled to San Francisco to attend the 83 rd Annual Conference of US Mayors from 19 th to 22 nd June, The Ard Mhéara, and Mr. O Donovan attended the plenary sessions of the conference on the 19 th & 20 th. The Berkeley tragedy occurred a few days previous to the start of the Mayors conference, and with the assistance of the Mayor s office and San Francisco police Department, the Ard Mhéara visited the families and friends of the students. Swansea Project TARA continues to develop and build upon the resources for the TARA project which was announced by Mayor Lee on March 17 th, The Tara team visited UC Berkeley recently in October and met with President Higgins. President Higgins was very interested in Project TARA as an example of Irish- American co-operation efforts in the field of STEM education, particularly amongst the young and disadvantaged. In January, Togher Boxing Club organised a boxing tournament with the Gwent Boxing Club from Swansea in Cork. In May (8 th to 10 th ) as a follow up to this

5 successful event, a further boxing weekend/tournament was held in Swansea, this time between Togher Boxing Club and Weston Division of Swansea. 18 participated in the event. As well as the boxing tournament on the 9 th, the group visited the Lord Mayor of Swansea in the Guild Hall where the group presented a letter of greeting from our Lord Mayor. The group also networked with a number of individual boxing coaches that would like to come to Cork with small numbers of boxers. The visit of the Togher boxing club to Swansea was assisted under the Twinning grant scheme. From 31 st March to 10 th May the Mission Gallery Swansea showcased the work of Anne Harrington Reese, Lesley Stothers, Tula Harrington and Nuala O Donovan. In addition a showreel of 120 Cork based makers was prepared for showing in the Gallery during the exhibition which gave maximum exposure to the wider membership of Cork Craft and Design. This exchange was assisted under the Twinning grant scheme.