Clare County Council's audacious bid to twin with China

Clare County Council is to take a major step today in an unlikely twinning arrangement with the far flung land of the Yunnan province in China by agreeing to send a delegation there this spring.

Clare mayor John Crowe (FG) is set to lead the council delegation in the 16,000km round trip and said “the proposed twinning arrangement will be very, very beneficial to Clare and will put Clare’s name out there in China”.

He said the trip to Yunnan province “is the first leg of the twinning and will be about getting to know each other. We will try to sell what we have and this has the potential to be very big for Clare tourism and Shannon Airport.”

The link-up follows Mr Crowe tabling a motion in 2012 that the council establish a twinning arrangement with China. “I am absolutely thrilled that things have happened so fast. I never thought when tabling the motion in 2012 that a trip would be organised during my year as cathaoirleach (chairperson),” he said.

Mr Crowe tabled the motion after the successful trip by Chinese prime minister Xi Jinping to Ireland in 2012 and Clare where a calf was named after him at a Sixmilebridge farm.

The unlikely ‘twin’ for Clare, with a population of 116,000, is the Yunnan province with a population of 46m.

The matter comes before today’s council meeting after the vice-president of Yunnan, Cheng Yunchaun, wrote to the council on Christmas Day to invite a delegation in April and May of this year.