WITH Killarney’s St Patrick’s Day celebrations now just weeks away, there has been no shortage of opportunities for locals to sample some great carnivals and traditions in other parts of Europe in recent days and they have picked up some useful tips in the process.
Killarney Town Twinning Committee Chairman and Secretary, Seán Counihan and Sheila Dickson, were VIP guests in Bavaria where they were given a great insight into the priorities set and the approach adopted in one of Germany’s most popular travel destinations.
Like Killarney, Bavaria has a great mix of impressive scenery, popular festivals and distinctive local culture to lure visitors and now efforts are being made to establish an Erasmus exchange programme for the mutual benefit of catering and office administration students in both areas, in association with the Killarney School of English and local hotels.
The two-person Killarney delegation met with representatives from Killarney twin Pleinfeld in Germany and they experienced the colour and excitement of a famous carnival in Ramsberg.
While Seán Counihan and Sheila Dickson – both former town councillors in Killarney – were enjoying their fact-finding mission, High Street based architect Davide Mosca – the man who designed the new ANAM Arts and Cultural Centre on East Avenue Road – was being paraded on horseback through the narrow streets of his native village in Italy as part of another pageant.
He was invited to become the 72nd Count Pierre in his native village of Verrès which is part of a great tradition, going back centuries, to mark the special bond the original Count had with the local villagers.
There were jubilant scenes on the streets in the Aosta Valley village, located to the north-west of Turin, as Davide was paraded through, wearing the traditional combat gear worn by an all-powerful Count several centuries ago.
He is the third member of his family to be honoured as Count Pierre in Verrès and he follows in the footsteps of his brother and their late father.
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