Island to be twinned with... Mars

IF there is life on Mars and “it” decides to visit our humble planet, well, chances are Island Roy in Donegal will be the first alien landfall.

Is there life on Roy? Well, there must be, because Donegal County Council has been asked to consider twinning the 90-acre spit of mostly rock with the Red Planet.

Island Roy can be reached by a causeway linking it to the mainland.

The extraterrestrial twinning idea had its genesis in Donegal County Council’s “Lovely Weather Project”.

This project was a deadly serious, up-front initiative taken by the council’s Public Art Office in which artists were offered residencies to explore how art could address issues around global warming and climate change in Co Donegal.

This week, councillors were informed that a Lovely Weather submission for the Letterkenny electoral was submitted from an American arts group called The League of Imaginary Scientists. The zany group describe themselves as a non-exclusive society for “creative scientists, mechanically inclined artists, absurdist inventors and self-proclaimed quacks”.

They are working with geophysicist, Jeff Shoffner, who has worked on the Mars Rover project as a geology and minerals specialist. It was he who suggested that an island in Donegal be twinned with another one on the Red Planet.

The Council’s Public Arts manager, Ms Terri Duffy, explained they chose this particular commission for the Letterkenny area as they felt it highlighted most the “hot topic” of climate change.

Ms Duffy says she believes their project will be “installation based” and will be located at the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny.

She also said it would be a major publicity stunt and could a give much needed boost to Donegal’s beleaguered tourism sector.