BLOSSOMING LINKS between Westport and Slovenia have been further strengthened this week with the arrival of Slovenian ambassador Franc Miksa and a party of 15 teachers in the Co Mayo town.
The ambassador and Slovenian delegation were special guests last evening at a concert in the Castlecourt Hotel.
The local Gaelscoil na Cruaiche, which has an enrolment of 205, is "twinned culturally" with a primary school, Osnovna sola Ivanjkovci, in Ormoz, Slovenia.
Westport and Slovenian children have exchanged DVDs about their school lives. The Slovenian children have learned sean nós dancing and the tin whistle. An entire wall of the Westport Gaelscoil has been filled with posters and artwork from Slovenia.
The Slovenian school has a similar wall full of artwork from the west of Ireland.
The younger pupils in both schools have learned about the different cultures through an exchange of mascots. The visit to Ormoz by three Gaelscoil teachers last month was hugely instructive, according to Caroline Nic Donncha, principal of the school.
"Our children go to school in prefabs whereas the Slovenian children have facilities such as a computer lab and a sports hall," Ms Nic Donncha explained.
"Our teachers did not expect this to be the situation given that Slovenia is part of what was eastern Europe and Ireland has been an economic leader in Europe for the past decade.
"What this project has also shown is what can be done in spite of the lack of adequate facilities," Ms Nic Donncha continued. "But it begs the question about what we could do . . . if we had adequate facilities for the children."