Galway 2020’s Croatian ‘twin city’ goes green for St Patrick’s Day

Landmarks on the skyline of Rijeka will turn green on St. Patrick’s Day this year for the first time ever as Croatia’s third largest city celebrates its new relationship with Galway city and county.

Thirteenth century Trsat Castle, which was once owned by Irish Knight, Naval Nugent, and is perched on a hill overlooking Rijeka, will be lit-up on March 17. So too will two working cranes at the seaport, around which the city revolves.

The gesture will symbolise the new connections between Galway and Rijeka, which jointly hold the European Capital of Culture designation in 2020.

“They will be illuminated in green to demonstrate our friendship with Galway and Ireland,” said mayor of Rijeka, Vojko Obersnel.

He was speaking at an event last Friday which took place on a boat moored at the local port on the shores of the Kvarner Gulf in the Adriatic Sea.

The occasion marked the first official face-to-face engagement between the two cities’ Capital of Culture project teams since Galway was awarded the designation last July.

Among the small delegation from Ireland who travelled to Rijeka over the weekend was Marilyn Gaughan Reddan, Programme Development and Legacy with Galway 2020.

The others included Catherine McConnell, Acting Director of Services for Planning, Community, Enterprise and Economic Development at Galway County Council, whose brief includes the Galway West of Ireland Region of Gastronomy designation in 2018; and award-winning chef at Bridget’s Garden in Rosscahill, Sarah O’Loughlin, a GMIT graduate and member of Chef Network Ireland.

A return visit by Rijeka 2020 to Galway is expected to take place later this year; separately, it is understood the President of Croatia, who is on a State visit to Ireland in the coming months, is also expected to visit Galway to further strengthen links between the cities ahead of 2020.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.