The Mayor of Carlow is defending his trip to New York for St Patrick’s Day.
Ken Murnane and Cathaoirleach of Carlow County Council Fintan Phelan will be joined by the chair of the Tullow Municipal District Brian O’Donoghue for the visit on the invitation from the Carlow Association there.
Several overseas trips were approved at the local authorities monthly meeting this week but objections were raised by Cllr Adrienne Wallace. (See here).
Cllr Murnane says maintaining connections abroad is crucial; “I believe that these trips are an investment, they promote Carlow and they promote Carlow in all the countries that we travel to and the diaspora in New York is something that we need to know that we do support them that they are in our minds and we will show that we’re there for them and hopefully the money will come from America and be invested into Ireland long into the future”.
Cllr Murnane says oversees travel can result in direct investment back into the county; “There have been many trips from Tempe to Carlow which would bring huge money, Tempa have invested money in the famine graveyard, they’ve invested money in other projects in Carlow, for Carlow to be twinned with Tempe, the Arizona state university, one of the biggest universities in America, and we’re hoping that we will be able to tie in with Tempa and promote Carlow University when it happens so look, we win here every way”.
