Twelve months on from the national programme launch by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD, Ireland Reaching Out announces today that it has achieved coverage of its volunteer “reverse genealogy” service across the 32 counties of Ireland.
March 14th 2013
– Ireland Reaching Out (Ireland XO), the National “Reverse Genealogy” Programme launched by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD, on 14th March 2012, announced today that it now has a volunteer network across all 32 counties of Ireland. The volunteer programme recently signed up its 2,000th volunteer and is now present and active in over in 800 parishes north and south.
Ireland XO provides an invaluable service to the development of local communities by welcoming returning members of the local parish Diaspora to their area, showing them where their people came from, and introducing them where possible to living relatives. Volunteers trained in local history and heritage also identify those who left the area, tracing descendants of local emigrants, building up a “virtual” parish community worldwide.
Last year, An Taoiseach stated that “From its beginnings as a pilot project in South East Galway, Ireland Reaching Out has shown how ‘reverse genealogy’ can engage the diaspora to bring real social and economic benefits down to parish level”.
Commenting on this announcement, in advance of the upcoming 2013 St Patrick’s Day celebrations, An Taoiseach stated that:
“I am pleased to congratulate the Ireland XO organisation and its volunteers on achieving such a big milestone within a year of their national launch. The expansion of the programme is evidence that it is offering the Irish Diaspora a chance to engage in a way that is really valuable to them. Like the Gathering 2013 initiative, Ireland XO is a great opportunity to reach out to the Irish Diaspora around the world, allow them to reconnect with their heritage and tap into the potential it represents for local communities around Ireland.”
Ireland Reaching Out founder and Chairman Mike Feerick stated that
“achieving national coverage of Ireland XO is a magnificent milestone for the programme, and while we still have a distance to go to have coverage in every single parish in Ireland, credit must go to the Ireland XO HQ team, the programme’s sponsors, and its’ thousands of volunteers in parishes across Ireland to have made such rapid progress in so short a space of time”.
Contact:
Paula Kennedy,
Press Officer,
Tel: +353 (0)91 842013 / 086-069-5152
Email: pkennedy@irelandxo.com
