The elected members of Mayo County Council this week gave their full support to the Diaspora project being undertaken by the council.
At the March monthly meeting of the local authority the members were given a presentation on the current website being built by the council as the first part of the project. The members were given a demonstration of a number of the web pages for the site which will include a social networking aspect where people can sign up and become members of the site, a genealogy section where people can trace their family tree, news section with news from towns and villages in Mayo, and Mayo associations and other Irish groups worldwide will be able to post news of events and happenings in their locality.
“This project looks to be a very good one that will do wonders to publicise the county and keep those of Mayo extraction in touch with home and the comings and goings in the county,” Fine Gael councillor Joe Mellett told the meeting. “This site can see us build up a number of partnerships worldwide with agencies and organisations who can have a big impact in Mayo in years to come.”
Sinn Féin councillor Rose Conway Walsh added: “I want to commend all the people involved in this project especially the county manager Mr Peter Hynes who has been behind this all the way. As someone who themselves had to leave and go to London for a number of years, I know how important the Irish Diaspora is. Another thing I would like to see coming down the line is a vote being given to the massive Irish Diaspora worldwide and I would look to the incoming Fine Gael Government to do something about this.”
Independent councillor Richard Finn said: “This website looks like it could be part of a great vision of a future for Mayo and the development of this county going into the years ahead.”
Fianna Fáil councillor Al McDonnell was also complementary of the website and the work it was doing in tandem with other cultural initiatives being pursued by the council, including trying to attract Irish language students from third level institutions from outside Ireland to come to Mayo for educational holidays and the initiative to develop Mayo as a hub for Clann reunions.
