Twinning
Grandad January 20th, 2010
I confess I am at a loss to understand this twinning of towns lark.
Everywhere you drive in Ireland you pass signs proudly proclaiming that some Godforsaken village is twinned with some place you have never heard of. Even Skobieville, our nearest town is twinned with some place on the continent which is one of the biggest mistakes ever made by our continental friends – I bet someone got hung, drawn and quartered for that little miscalculation.
But what is the point of it? Is there free transport between the two twins? Can the people of one place go to their twin and demand free accommodation and discounts everywhere? What benefit is there in all of this?
I mention this because I got an email this morning from some place in France I have never heard of. It was a very nice letter, and it said that they were desperate [heh! They must be!!] to twin with a village in Ireland. They said they had heard of Glendoher from somewhere and that we sounded like the ideal match. Now, few people in Ireland have heard of Glendoher, and that’s the way we like it, so I’m not sure how the French are so fucking well informed. Unless of course it has something to do with my trip over there? I admit I may have mentioned where I came from, and I admit I may have made a couple of small exaggerations, but even I didn’t recognise the description of my village in the mail.
My own personal theory is that it is just an excuse for councillors from each town or village to go on little junkets at our expense. I can’t see any other purpose.
I wrote back to the French crowd and politely declined.
You see, we are already twinned. We were quite quick on that bandwagon, though I must add that it wasn’t anything to do with me.
We were twinned with a lovely little place in Ukraine back in March of 1986.
There used to be a little sign on the way into the village.
You are now entering Glendoher
Proudly twinned with Chernobyl
- Around the village
- Comments(23)
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Twinning was OK when a town was twinned with ONE other. Mainly for schoolkids to pen pal up ,visit each other and maybe learn something about the world. Now there’s a list a mile long and it loses it’s significance.
and isn’t ‘Glendoher’ Gaelic for ‘grumpy’ ?
TT – But I still don’t understand the purpose of the whole thing. The pen pals thing makes sense, but then surely it would be simpler [and cheaper] to just twin schools? I would love to know how many people from A ever visit B simply because of twinning?
I used to be a fluent Irish speaker, but I’m afraid I don’t know the Irish for Grumpy. Glendoher is apparently called that because they found gold there once, or some such shite.
Trust me on this one. It’s kinda nice. I was 14 and it’s a magical memory.
Here in London Tahhhhnnn some local authorities put up signs in the eighties declaring themselves to be a nuclear free zone.
Which is fine but how does a nuclear missile know its not allowed to explode there?
Ain’t technology marvellous?
TT – Once again, you’re managing to confuse me. What happened when you were 14?
Cap’n – Just out of interest, did those boroughs escape the fallout?
Just going abroad on a twin town/pen pal thing with the school. It was OK having a twin town. Even fascinating at that age. ‘specially getting laid with a French chick.
They escaped the Great Harney Cloud alright Grandad but now they have power cuts all the time.
Lambeth is all candles now … ’tis very pretty and the muggers faces are all aglow like little childer at Christmas.
I was Head of a primary School in Wales until I retired last year and we twinned with schools in the north of Eire, Finland and Sweden – it gave us an excellent opportunity to meet others from “Greater Europe”.
Also gave me an opportunity to reaffirm the fact that Guinness tastes better on your side of the pond. I still can’t understand why Chek lager tasted like Budweiser in Finland ————
See, told you it was an excellent opportunity to devlop educational links. Must be a Celtic trait!!!
you could twin the whole of norn iron, as people insist on calling it, with a jar of jam…sticky shitty jam at that….meh…in a mood to day
B****y ‘ell – the comment header’s flagged with the Union Jack – Wales isn’t even included on that duster!!!
So ye’re twinned with a place that has…
no tourists,
cheap houses,
no jams, speed cams, or traffic wardens,
and where no one gives a shyte if you smoke like thomas the tank engine!
Get the village to elect you, quick!
PS tt: Cork twinned with Swansea – Welsh lasses, hmmm?
Jesus- welsh lasses- last lucky lass to get the Cap’n was from Wales … four years before the mast that time.
Mind you, if you have an Irish accent lads/lasses you could do a lot worse than take a week in the valleys- the girls I know from personal experience would hop into your lap.
Mind you, I am a handsome devil…
TT – Losing the cherry at 14? Not bad. Only four years behind me. It still would have worked if you had twinned schools though?
Cap’n – So the Nuclear Exclusion Zone worked? I bet the neighboring boroughs were a bit pissed with them though!!
Mick – It’s not a bad spot actually. As you say, it’s very peaceful, and after sunset there is a lovely soft glow about the place that is quite romantic.
Wales? Hmmmmm. That’s it. Fuck France, and I’m off to the Valleys this summer.
Manuel – I missed you there, lurking behind the back table [as usual]. Did I hear somewhere that there was talk of twinning Norn Iron with Helmand Provence in Afghanistan? Maybe it was just a rumour?
Our town twinned with its self. I think being so close to Three Mile Island had something to do with that.
Do you have lots of cousins with two heads, and cows with five legs? Cooool. And does Three Mile Island still glow in the dark too? Can we twin with you?
Hey, Cardi – You snuck in the back door? Of course Guinness is better here. It doesn’t take twinning to find that out? As for the flag: why don’t you kick the English out like we did? Then you can have your own flag up there.
Aw Shit…There is something wrong…
Server January 21st, 2010 01:51 pm
The Server could not get you the page you are looking for. The content might have been moved or deleted.
Don’t loose your hope just yet. You might try Searching through the Archives.
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Who said I lost the cherry at 14? Pay better attention and you might not get so confused.
TT – Please stop trying to annoy my server. It’s doing its best and doesn’t appreciate abuse.
getting laid with a French chick“
Or are you saying that you are one of a batch of eggs that were laid then?
I DID NOT SAY IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I EVER GOT LAID. Jeez it’s like pulling teeth. As for your server I printed out the message I got when I tried to post a comment.
TT – You piss my server off – I piss you off. We work as a team here.