KildareNet News

NAAS, 28 June 2002: by Brian Byrne. The visit to Naas by a delegation from Omaha, Nebraska (above), in August will be the biggest group of people the middle-America city’s Sister Cities Association has ever sent abroad to a twin.

The party, which will do a return signing of the charter signed last March in Omaha by then mayor of Naas Willie Callaghan and Mayor Mike Fahey of Omaha (left), will be over 60 people strong, and will spend the period 2-6 August in Naas.

Included will be Mayor Fahey along with four members of Omaha City Council, six members of the Board of Directors of the Omaha Sister Cities Association, nine members of the Fr Flanagan Ancient Order of Hibernians branch, as well as a number of private individuals and representatives of businesses and cultural organisations.

Many of the delegates - some of whom hosted Naas delegates in March - are bringing members of their families. Mayor Fahey’s four children are scheduled among the group.

Some of the delegates will have specific interests on their visit, such as fireman Richard Prusha who wants to visit with firemen in Naas during his stay. Packaging company executive Gary Coker raises horses and will no doubt be taking a tour of the key horse centres in The Thoroughbred County, while JoAnn Woltkamp and Virginia Stuart of the Omaha Botanical Gardens should find the Millennium Garden at the National Stud in Kildare to be an intriguing Celtic take on gardens.

The family names of the delegates represent a strong mix of German and Irish ethnic origin, the two predominant ethnic groups in Omaha.

Omaha’s Sister Cities Association was founded 37 years ago when the city twinned with Shizuoka in Japan. The city’s other twins are Braunschweig in Germany and Siaulia in Lithuania.

The Nebraska capital’s associations with these twins have been strengthened over the years by very regular visits between the cities, and a wide programme of scholarships, student exchanges, choir and musician tours, and exchanges between academics in the various educational institutions of the twin cities.