site.bta Chepelare's Town Hall Illuminated Green on St. Patrick's Day to Celebrate Strong Bonds with Ireland

Chepelare's Town Hall Illuminated Green on St. Patrick's Day to Celebrate Strong Bonds with Ireland

Sofia, March 18 (Metodi Yordanov of BTA) - The town hall
building in the Bulgarian Southwestern town and ski resort of
Chepelare was illuminated green on Tuesday night, Saint
Patrick's Day, to celebrate the strong bonds between the people
of Chepelare and their friends from Ireland. The Irish
Ambassador to Bulgaria, John Biggar, tells BTA about how this
friendship was cultivated in the course of three decades and the
 human story behind it. 

The connection with Ireland developed in the mid-1980's when a
group of people from Monaghan (a county in the Republic which
borders Northern Ireland), many of whom connected to the
Monaghan Rotary Club, became regular winter sports visitors to
Chepelare. Over the years, they developed friendships in the
town, and many bought houses there, in most cases visiting a
number of times a year, Ambassador Biggar said.

In the mid-1990's, the Irishmen found out that the young
daughter of one of their Bulgarian friends suffered from PKU, an
 inherited disorder in which excess phenylalanine from the
protein in foods builds up in the blood, affecting brain
development and function, and which if left untreated can lead
to intellectual disability. The members of the Rotary Club
decided to help and for about 20 years provided the special
foods she needed until these became available in Bulgaria. They
were helped in their endeavour by the North Down Rotary Club,
with which they have a close association (Down is a county in
Northern Ireland), the Ambassador explained. The young woman is
now in her mid-20s and works in the municipal offices in
Chepelare. As a sign of their close friendship and strong bonds
with Ireland, the Chepelare town hall building was illuminated
green on the night of St. Patrick's Day - a public holiday in
Ireland, which is widely celebrated across the world on March
17.

In addition, the Rotary Club has set up a programme to provide
much-needed medical equipment for the local polyclinic, which
continues to this day, Ambassador Biggar added.

It seems that news of their work spread beyond Chepelare and
nine years ago, they were approached by a family from Rousse (on
 the Danube) looking for help for their six-year old son who
needed surgery to reconstruct his heart. The Rotary Club raised
over 30,000 euro to pay for two operations, one at the Great
Ormond Street hospital for children in London and one in Sofia,
which were successful. The boy is now a healthy fifteen year
old, he noted.

According to Ambassador Biggar, the bonds between Chepelare and
Monaghan have been further strengthened by a number of visits by
 the townspeople to the Irish counties of Monaghan and Down. The
 Chepelare town council has given recognition to the work of the
 Monaghan Rotary Club by presenting civic awards to four of its
members - Sean Boylan, Raymond Wilkinson, Brendan Monahan and
David Drumm. As another token of friendship and the close bonds,
 some years ago one of the streets in Chepelare was named
"Ireland Street", the Irish Ambassador said.