Building links between Hollyhead and Dun Laoghaire
Issued : Monday 5 November, 2007
I would like to welcome you all here to-day for your regular meeting of the Holyhead-Dún Laoghaire Link.
Of course, as you all know, this is not the first time for you to meet in our County Hall or indeed here in our Council Chamber. I am glad to say that since your establishment back in 1998, our facilities have always been made available for your meetings whenever you requested such assistance.
We are conscious that one of your main strengths is your community base both here in Dun Laoghaire and in Holyhead. Our County Council wishes to assist and help you build upon the past 9 years of bridge building, which you have done so well.
I am also glad to note that every one of my predecessors as Cathaoirleach, over the nine years of your existence, have addressed your meetings and functions - sometimes here in Ireland and other times in Wales. The Mayors of Holyhead and the Chairpersons of the Anglesey County Council have done likewise.
We in DLR County Council congratulate you for your work in bringing the organisations and peoples of our two port towns and regions together in co-operation. Your work has been invaluable in developing co-operation and friendship on various fronts including business, cultural, tourism, sport, (I understand Hollyhead hot spur FC and Dunaloghaire town FC have played each other on many occasions also the young boxers of Ballybrack and Hollyhead) employment creation, active retirement, tidy towns, employment and even policing. Long may this co-operation and friendships flourish.
Many community organisations with which I am familiar regard meetings as a necessary evil. Meetings are usually held to plan future activities. But with the LINK I observe that your very meeting is an achievement in that it brings people together from our both communities. I understand on going aspects of the Link include contacts between our primary and secondary schools in both areas especially those schools where our native languages are the main medium of education.
Often when we in DLR County Council meet an organisation with aspirations galore, like you do, we often need to set up a study group to see if the aspirations and plans are a runner. There is no need for such a study here as your "product" has already proven its worth over the years. All we need to pinpoint is how best to assist you in your work.
Today this meeting has a very full and exciting Agenda with some very interesting proposals up for discussion by delegates, including one hoping to build on the strength of our Link between our two towns and counties, to enable us together to seek and foster beneficial links with neighbouring areas on both sides of the Irish Sea.
I am working with my County Manager to develop opportunities for us as County, City and Town Councilors to develop on the networking example provided by the Link maybe an example of this would be for meetings between the elected members of local authorities of Hollyhead town council and Anglesey Co.Council to meet with elected representatives of Dunlaoghaire Rathdown Co.Council. Delegates, be assured of my sincerity that I am supportive of such initiatives and will hopefully progress them during my term of office.
I must take this opportunity to congratulate you on one of the many initiatives, which arose from one of your meetings. In fact it arose from your first formal meeting in 1998. I refer to your initiative on remembering the mailboat RMS Leinster, which took place in October 2003, on the 85th anniversary of that greatest ever disaster on the Irish Sea. Those of you from Wales may not fully appreciate the significance of your timely intervention. Up to then the Leinster had been forgotten in Irish history.-.some people would say pushed under the carpet- because along with the loss of the postal workers, nurses and ordinary citizens, there were many British soldiers lost on the Leinster. It was therefore impossible politically for anyone to publicly remember the tragedy in Ireland. The fact that most of the soldiers were in the British Army to avoid starvation at home was overlooked. I am glad to say that I was there with you, as a postal worker, and indeed was one of your speakers, when you took that courageous step in October 2003. The official representation on the day by the Irish State, numerous embassies and above all the 2,500 people present from both sides of the Irish Sea said it all.
Your meeting to-day will plan your efforts to encourage applications for INTERREG EU funding. Not just funding for your own day to day expenses but also for all other local bodies and projects wishing to apply. I should also acknowledge here the role of the same INTERREG in providing the funding for your activities over the past three years.
Your meeting to-day will also plan your annual dinner in March. What a good idea it is to hold a St.Patrick's Day Dinner in Wales and on the alternate year to hold a Saint David's Day Dinner in Ireland. Both national days are in March. I look forward to travelling to Wales, as Cathaoirleach, for the St. Patricks Day Dinner next March which incidentally will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the LINK's foundation in 1998.
You will also be planning a bigger and better joint stand at the Anglesey Show in August next. I am delighted to hear that highly ambitious plans are falling into place to include the joint participation of the Small Business Federation of North Wales, the Dun Laoghaire Business Association, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Tourism, CoCo Markets from Dun Laoghaire and many others in making the next promotion at the Anglesey Show better and bigger than ever. The work of Jeff Evans, Richard Owen and Jean Williams in organising the stand over the years has made this latest expansion possible. With an attendance in excess of 60,000 people, the Anglesey Show is obviously a first class location to continue jointly promoting Dun Laoghaire and Holyhead.
Delegates, in an age when volunteerism and community activism are under threat from the pace and demands of our modern lifestyles, organisations such as the Holyhead and Dún Laoghaire Link offer fresh and exciting opportunities to broaden the scope of our community and voluntary organisations - this type of interaction across borders is at the heart of the European project - bringing peace, prosperity and unity to our continent. Delegates, you can be rightly proud of the part your Link has played in this regard.
As I have dedicated my term as Cathaoirleach to fully recognising and building upon our community and voluntary activity here in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, I hope that this Link will continue to fully embrace the entire Counties of Anglesey and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, and maybe beyond, as many opportunities and benefits for our two communities will flow from our continued cooperation, hard work and ingenuity.
Finally, an example of the Holyhead Dun Laoghaire Link in action. I hear that a young Dun Laoghaire graduate has recently been appointed Parliamentary Researcher at Westminster to LINK member Albert Owen M.P. I understand that they are now working on changing the letters after his name from M.P. to P.M.
Cllr 
