Midway during a St. Georges Channel crossing on Saturday, 1 November, onboard Stena Nordica, the port towns of Fishguard and Goodwick became officially twinned with Rosslare, reports yesterday's Western Telegraph.
At that point on the Irish Sea, between the two communities represented by Fishguard Mayor Cllr Billy Shaw and Rosslare Cathaoirleach Cllr Ger Carthy, the signing of documents took place, which made the twinning agreement official.
Also attending the historic crossing ceremony on board the route’s routine ferry were members of the North Pembrokeshire Chamber of Trade and Tourism, the mayor’s cadet, Rhys Hughes, members of Kilmore Scout, and a Stena Line representative.
The twinning of the two Irish Sea port towns in Pembrokeshire and Wexford has been in the offing for some time. In September last year, Rosslare Municipal District Council approved a twinning request from Fishguard & Goodwick Town Council.
Initially, the twinning ceremony was supposed to take place in September of this year but was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions; however, on Saturday, the seas remained calm enough for the event to go ahead.
Since then the weather deteriorated; as Afloat reported last night (3 Nov), the sailing was cancelled, which forced the chartered Isle of Man Steam Packet’s Ben-My-Chree to remain in Rosslare with passengers transferred to the Irish Ferries route to Pembroke Dock. At the time of writing this morning, Ben-My-Chree is underway on its first commercial sailing, which is understood to be historic, as it is also the first ferry from the Manx company to serve on the Ireland-Wales route.
More from the regional Welsh newspaper here.
As for the Stena Nordica, it has since transferred to cover routine winter dry-dockings of fleetmates on the Dublin-Holyhead route as part of a space charter agreement with Irish Ferries on the central Irish Sea.
