Michael Ring, Minister of State for Tourism and Sport has announced a partnership between The Gathering Ireland 2013 and Ireland Reaching Out. The partnership seeks to enhance the Gathering Ireland tourist initiative that is aiming to bring 325,000 tourists to Ireland over the course of 2013.
The Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO) programme is an award-winning national community programme that works with parishes across Ireland to connect with their diaspora worldwide, enabling people to trace their roots to specific Irish parishes and providing a 'Meet & Greet' service. The Ireland XO website will provide a profile for every parish in the country, and aims to facilitate connections with some of the estimated 70 million diaspora abroad. Announcing the partnership Minister Ring said: "The partnership between The Gathering Ireland 2013 and Ireland XO provides a great opportunity for the millions of people who may have a relationship with Ireland to connect to the parishes across the country. I want to thank Ireland XO founder Mike Feerick for bringing this support to The Gathering Ireland 2013 initiative." Ireland XO is currently identifying and training volunteers in parishes across the country who will guide returning diaspora to places of interest including family homesteads, grave stones or land connected to their families. People abroad can leave queries on the site that will be responded to by local trained volunteers, helping to link them to their ancestral homes
