Irish Visitor
I was pleased to welcome the Mayor of Bray, Ireland (one of our two sister cities) to Dublin for a special visit late last week. Mayor John Ryan is actually in the Bay Area on business, but he took time from his busy schedule for a special trip to Dublin. Mayor Ryan met with myself, City Manager Joni Pattillo, Assistant City Manager Chris Foss, and Community Development Director Jeri Ram to share ideas on governance, budgeting, economic development, communications, and planning. More significantly, we had a serious conversation on joint business opportunities and trade between companies in our two cities. We also discussed ways to grow the Sister City partnership between our two cities and involve more people.
After our meeting, Mayor Ryan attended a special reception at the home of Steve and Janet Lockhart. Janet (our former Mayor) is currently the president of the Dublin Sister City Association. There were many people from the DSCA in attendance to greet our special guest from Bray. The Sister City Association is currently very busy planning the Green and White Gala, which is the annual kickoff to the St. Patrick’s Weekend festivities. This year they are promising more “Irish entertainment” than ever before. In addition, they are working on planning a trip to either Jinhua, China (Dublin’s other Sister City) or Bray for 2011. The DSCA is also working on hosting a soccer tournament for youth teams from both sister cities to compete in Dublin for 2011.
