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The Gathering Ireland is a national initiative encouraging communities to come together and organise events, encouraging anyone with a connection to Ireland to come and visit.
It kicked off at the weekend with the Emerald Isle Classic match between Notre Dame and Navy, which brought thousands of American football fans to Dublin.
Across the country, local communities are swinging into action – including Inishowen, Co Donegal. Here John Collins explains what the area is doing to bring people home.
INISHOWEN WOULD SEEM like a close-knit peninsula community in North Donegal, but its social network is truly international.
When it came to planning Carndonagh Community School’s 40th annual reunion, The Gathering seemed like a great resource for us to tap into. We know we have over 10,000 past pupils, which might be hard to believe coming from a small community but our diaspora are present in over 80 countries around the world. It goes to show you how much and how far the Irish travel. We decided this would be a great excuse to send an open invite out to people to return home for a visit.
Inishowen is a community, but one of the stark issues that does affect us is emigration – it always has. It is such an attractive and beautiful part of the country but unfortunately due to the lack of jobs in the area or the lack of particular jobs, people have had to move on often leaving their relatives behind and start somewhere else.
The recession, I cannot lie, has affected our area. Many young people have had to leave to find work in the larger towns or abroad and that of course is to the detriment of the area. It is sad to see so many of the young people head off and leave the area.
It really can feel like the life is ebbing out of a place but we have a lot of positives to offer people visiting and that is what we are going to show those who come over to visit.
The area has seen huge rejuvenation in the area over the years. It’s not only beautiful and scenic but we have a lot of amenities, just like any other town in the country.
The area has a lot to offer – that may surprise some people who are returning, but we are hoping that once people come home again they will warm to it. We are not as backward as we are made out nationally. Some of the past pupils or staff who return may not have been home in over 20 years, so we want to show all those that visit that although times and places have changed, our community remains the same. Yes, we are a small town but its people are great. You can’t fault the friendliness of the people here.
This reunion is all about showing our community in a positive light – to stop focusing on the recession and difficulties people face and look at what our area has produced: countless of talented people who are dotted all over the world.
This is a massive geographical area, but at one stage we all went to the same school. The reunion is open to all past pupils and staff and is going to be run over four days, with music, dinner and dancing.
The one difference in comparison to other years is the importance and usefulness of social media. Teacher Niall Havlin, set up a Facebook page to tell everyone about the event, which is taking place in August 2013.
After five days the page had 2000 friends, so we think we have a major event on our hands. We are asking any past pupils to root out any memorabilia or photos, as they seem to be very popular. The old class pictures that are up on Facebook are getting a lot of attention.
While this event, we hope, will have a positive effect on the economics of our town, it is really about the social aspect of it. It’s about old faces seeing each other again and we think that it will spur on positivity in the area.
What is important to us is that this reunion is about coming together as a community – and that is what I think The Gathering is all about. It is about reaching out to those that left last year, five years ago – or even 20 years ago – and welcome them back to where they came from.
For more information on the Carndonagh Community School click here or visit the Facebook page here. There is also a dedicated reunion website.
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Hopefully now that things are calming he might take time out to release a new Gangham song for us fans.
Quick! Someone stop Leo before he invites him here!
@pats brandon: what has Leo got to do with this?
@Fabio Dillon: it’s called a humorous comment and as for Leo and Kim that won’t happen as there is no way you can be seen to meet with a monster, who has destroyed his peoples lives and forced more than a few people to leave their home and birth place for a better life and whose people are now suffering from food shortage, no money and health system that is 3rd world and has people dying as a result.
But if Kim has no problem with this and can overlook Leo’s faults and failings to the irish people so be it
@nelly:
Trying to compare Ireland to NK is moronic, even if its an attempt to be humourous.
@Walt Jabsco: so sorry snowflake, did I upset you
@Walt Jabsco: who performed your humour bypass?
Damn good whoever it was….
@Dessie Deratta:
I have a great sense of humour thanks sweetheart – it’s just that there was nothing even remotely funny in Nelly’s comment.
@Walt Jabsco: 25 thumbs up and counting says different. Unfortunately the journal and snowflakes, like yourself got rid of the red thumbs down, as you don’t do rejection well. Smiley face, smiley face, humorous face, laughing face. Wave bye bye
@Walt Jabsco: I’d say you’re great Craic over a pint.
@nelly: except for food shortage, I agree 100%
@Walt Jabsco: No you don’t and yes there was.
@pats brandon: Leo can invite Justin Trudea for an afternoon of ..
Orange Mocha Frappuccino’s ! !!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTrxEQnPtAg
@nelly: yeah it’s not a humorous comment. Completely and utterly a non relevant comment. Thanks for your dribble though.
Chins finally taking some responsibility for this rogue leader with nuclear weapons which they created…….Have to give Trump some credit for this…..
@pc_comments: What are you talking about?
@pc_comments: in this case you could use the common typo “rouge regime” and still be right.
@pc_comments: yes, puzzled myself. Read somewhere, USA has 5500 nuke warheads, Russia has about 4000 nukes, China has 250, India and Pakistan have about 5 each, and there is world panic that Rocket Man may have 1 ???
Expel some Chinese diplomats.
We don’t need an actual reason….or must we wait till British spooks instruct us to?
@Dessie Deratta: What has china done on ireland?
@Sean Conway: What have the Russians done to Ireland? Tory boys Leo and Simon wanting to please their superiors.
@Dessie Deratta: Stick to your day job.
@Sean Conway: As we see from the Russian affair we don’t need a reason…neither China nor Russia have every done Ireland any harm.
But lets expel them to show solidarity with the Pentagon.
Donald will sort out all those lads
@Ger Burke: The guy can’t even hire a lawyer.
@Larry Doyle: Thanks for the leftie input. Took a while for you to come up with that I’d say.
Now, let’s hope these two lads can sort things out themselves. No need for the US to stick their beak in. N.korea are no more a threat to the world than Wales are.
@Centerro:
Tell that to the South Koreans
@Walt Jabsco: actually the SoKos are scared that Trump will start a war that will kill millions of them.
@Dessie Deratta:
It’s possible to be afraid of both the US and NK you know. They just don’t want a war full stop, and who could blame them?
@Walt Jabsco: It’s ok for th US to have a civil war. but korea or anyone shouldn’t?
@Sean Conway: They did have one. 1950 to 1952. Read a history book.
Another triumph for Trump.
Its a good step forward
Funny how a guy that’s worshipped so much in North Korea is so scared that he has to take secret trips abroad. Thought he’d be a guy for full state honours when he travels abroad. But then the north Koreans probably don’t even know he’s gone!
@Adrian: apparently he is afraid of flying.
Perhaps not for the same reason that many people are.
@Adrian: probably so much secrecy because he’s scared of being assassinated or being kidnapped by the CIA.
If either happened the country would deny it and his clone would take over!
I’d love to go for a pint him
@johnbunton: with him
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