Mayo councillors left out of the loop on visit by US diaspora group

Mayo County Council has been asked to keep councillors in the loop about events involving the county’s diaspora after one councillor said he missed the chance to meet visitors from Philadelphia who had previously welcomed councillors to the United States.

Cllr Michael Loftus raised the issue at the October meeting of the council’s strategic policy committee on Enterprise and Economic Development after the Head of Economic Development John Magee outlined ongoing efforts to engage with the Mayo diaspora, including events in New York, Philadelphia, London, Boston and Milwaukee, as well as opportunities to build on the international profile of prominent Mayo people.

Under the economic strategy, the council is aiming to “leverage the opportunities presented by Mayo people who are famous or have an international profile". Mr Magee pointed to the profile of Mayo’s All-Ireland-winning footballers.

“In terms of engaging with famous people or people with an international profile, our merry band of footballers are people with an international profile at this point in time," he said. 

He referred to the team's recent appearance on The Late Late Show, and noted they were sporting the gold ‘M’ logo badges.

Mr Magee also highlighted the two diaspora categories in the Mayo Co Council Cathaoirleach Awards, which recognise those who help to strengthen links with the global diaspora.

“There are consistent ongoing efforts to engage with the diaspora,” he said.

However, Cllr Loftus said councillors were not always being informed of diaspora visits to Mayo, and told the meeting he missed an opportunity to meet visitors from Philadelphia who had been in Westport last summer.

“There were people from Philadelphia in Westport that I would love to have met, and I did not know about it until afterwards,” he said. “They were so nice to us when we went over [to the US], it would’ve been nice to reciprocate the kindness they showed us.” 

Cllr Loftus asked that councillors be emailed ahead of diaspora events so they could make arrangements to attend as elected representatives.

• Published as part of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.