Reaching out even more

The Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO) Diaspora Project is set to expand to over 2,500 parishes volunteer communities across Ireland North and South.
This expansion led to the setting up last week of a separate South-East Galway Ireland Reaching Out team covering five clusters of parishes in the area.
A South-East Galway parish steering group made up of local volunteers was formed at a public meeting of parishes in the area last week. This group will take responsibility for the development of the programme in the locality.
The group consists of volunteers from the parishes of Ardrahan, Aughrim, Ballymacward, Clontuskert, Eyrecourt, Fohenagh, Gort, Kilchreest, Kilconnell, Killimor, Killure, Loughrea, Peterswell, Portumna, Tiernascragh and Woodford.
The steering group met to discuss the formation of a formal group to progress the objectives of the Ireland Reaching Out project and to organise the Week of Welcomes 2012 in the South-East Galway parishes.
The meeting was well-attended and was chaired by John Joe Conwell, parish liaison officer with Ireland Reaching Out. Elected as chairperson of the new group was Tim Broderick of the parish of Kilconnell, Frank Gavin from Fohenagh as vice-chairperson, Freda Geraghty from Aughrim, secretary, and Flo Kelly of Castledaly as assistant secretary. The core group will be further strengthened by committee members representing all the clusters of parishes involved in the project. The newly formed group will be focussing on the attracting of attendees to the June Week of Welcomes as well as putting on an exciting series of events for the visitors.
The next meeting of the group takes place on Monday, March 5 at 7.30pm in the Ireland XO offices at 25, Dunkellin Street in Loughrea. All are welcome.
The Ireland Reaching Out national project will shortly launch its web-based service, which will allow any parish in the country to create a parish profile online. The online parish profile includes a welcome team page where each parish community invites those who trace their roots to their parish to contact them. The Ireland XO project now has over 200 parishes active across the country.
Mark Conroy, web manager for Ireland XO, revealed that the busiest parishes online last week were Lough Gur and Ballyhoura in County Limerick, surpassing even the busiest South-East Galway parishes.
Commenting on the creation of the South East Galway Ireland XO group, chairman and founder of Ireland Reaching Out, Mike Feerick, said the development was a clear sign of the growth and expansion of the programme.
South-East Galway will now be engaging with the project like any other area in the country, but added that he was certain that South-East Galway would continue to be a lead through 2012, as it had in the past.
The new South-East Galway Ireland XO team will be starting a new series of heritage lectures following last year’s hugely successful My People, My Place, My Heritage lecture programme. These lectures will be delivered by local experts. Exact details of dates, times and lecture details will be outlined in the next week.
For further information on the project or to join the Ireland XO mailing list, visit www.irelandxo.com/mailing-list.