Douzelage News

Four Douzelage towns join in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening!

Sherborne – UK, Granville – France, Judenburg – Austria and Bundoran – Ireland were four of the Douzelage member towns that participated in Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening this year. The initiative which sees landmark buildings across the globe turn green for St Patrick’s Day (March 17th) is now in its 10th year.

Leweston Chapel, Sherborne, England
Leweston Chapel, Sherborne, England

The Leweston Chapel in Sherborne, the Casino and Old Town in Granville and the Judenburg City Tower & Planetarium joined iconic world landmarks like Niagara Falls, the Sydney Opera House, Christ the Redeemer statue, the Burj al Arab and the Empire State Building in changing colour to celebrate the Irish national holiday. In total almost 300 global greenings took place in 2019.

Judenburg_Stadtturm
Judenburg_Stadtturm, Austria

Shane Smyth of Douzelage Bundoran (Ireland) initiated the idea with the member towns late last year “everyone wants to be Irish on St Patrick’s Day and we always turn as many buildings as possible in Bundoran green for the holiday. Seeing the success of Tourism Ireland’s Global Greening project over the past 10 years, I thought it was an ideal opportunity for our Douzelage partner towns to come on board also. We were pleased to see three of our twins take on the challenge and we hope that more will join us for the 2020 Global Greening”

Annigje Kruytbosch, President of Douzelage added ‘we were thrilled to see some of our towns go green for the Irish holiday.  Any initiative like this that encourages our member towns to collaborate must be welcomed whole heartedly. We are one Europe and the global greening project by Tourism Ireland further cements that. I look forward to seeing more of our member towns participating in the years to come so that we can have a truly European greening!’

Global Greening in Old Town, Granville, France
Old Town, Granville, France

The Greening initiative promotes Irish culture more widely around the world and deepens links to Ireland’s diaspora and is an initiative of Tourism Ireland.

To find out how Douzelage towns work together click here