Press Release

Toledo delegation visit hailed a great success

Thursday, 11 November 2004

The Mayor, Councillor Gearoid O’hEara has hailed the recent high profile visit by the Toledo delegation that was in Derry as part of the Northern Ireland Centre for European Co-operation's (NICEC) cultural and social regeneration programme, as a “great success”.

During their six-day visit to the city and region, the group attended a series of events showcasing cultural and social aspects of the region and explored the role of policy in promoting active citizenship. They met with representatives from key institutions, networking organisations, regional and local Government, entrepreneurs and non-governmental organisations.

The delegation also discussed potential plans for developing partnership strategies between the two cities and during their six-day stay, the group visited a number of local economic and physical regeneration sites including the Ebrington Barracks and the Waterside Development sites at Tullyally, as well as taking a trip to Inishowen in County Donegal.

The Mayor, Councillor Gearoid O’hEara said the group were very impressed with what Derry had to offer and a number of extremely positive developments have been identified as a result of the visit.

He explained: “The delegation were genuinely overwhelmed with the city, its people and what the region has to offer. One of the people the group met with was Paddy Doherty of the Inner City Trust and the group were extremely impressed with how the Trust was able to rebuild the Inner City by using unemployed young people. The Toledo delegation suggested that they are interested in exploring a possible youth exchange programme, which would enable young people from ethnically diverse backgrounds in Castile La Mancha to make a positive contribution to other communities.

“The delegation were also very impressed with the physical beauty of the city and its rich culturally diverse history, the dominance and key feature of the Walls and the central role the Walls played in recent history in bringing people together through agreement. The group was also amazed at the important role the Walks played in European history and they suggested we should apply for World Heritage Status from UNESCO and have that important role acknowledged formally. They offered Council their assistance in enabling us to proceed with the bid because they were able to successfully achieve this for two cities in their region of Spain for Toledo and Quenco,” he added.

Brendan McMenamin, Acting Visual Arts Organiser, Derry City Council said the joint exchange between Derry City Council and the University of Ulster NI Centre For European Cooperation has proved extremely fruitful and worth while for everyone involved.

He commented: “The delegation was not only made up of civic and political dignitaries but also included business people who have who were egger to explore possible ventures. The visit was extremely beneficial to everyone involved and we are confident that we will benefit greatly from the visit. A focused team of representatives from the City is hoping to travel to Toledo before Christmas to peruse possible projects that have arisen from the visit,” he added.

Ends

Notes to Editor:

The delegation included D. José Manuel Tofiño -President of the Provincial Government of Toledo; Dña. Angeles Díaz Vieco - manager of the Culture and Sports Foundation; D. Angel Nicolás - President of the Toledo Businessmen-Foundation; D. Juan Ignacio de Mesa -Director of Toledo Real Foundation; D. Eugenio Sánchez - General Secretary of the Federation of Municipalities and provinces of Castilla-La Mancha.

NICEC is a unit of the University of Ulster and is based at the Magee campus, and is funded under the EU's Peace II programme through the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister.

Further press information can be obtained by contacting the City Marketing Department at Derry City Council, Tel. 028 7137 6504.

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Press Office

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