Tale of two Borrises: Danes made welcome

A GROUP of schoolchildren from Borris, Co Carlow, have welcomed to their town another group of schoolchildren from another Borris: Borris, Midtjylland, in Denmark, that is.

The 21 children from the small town in the west of Denmark arrived in Dublin airport yesterday to cries of “Velkommen!” from their Irish counterparts.

The sixth-class pupils had set off at midnight on Sunday for a journey by car and train to Copenhagen, and by plane on to Dublin.

Co Carlow’s sixth-class pupils from Borris National School waved a Danish flag and wore hoodies with “Fáilte Go Buiríos, Velkommen til Borris” across the front.

Pat Cody, their teacher, said plans for the visit began to germinate two years ago as he and his pupils were looking at Google Earth on the internet.

“We were flabbergasted to find there was another town in the world called Borris.

“And it is almost identical in size and population to our own town. We were 1,083 in the last census and Borris, Denmark, has a population of about 1,100.

“Both are rural towns and quite agricultural.”

Having found the phone number of the Danish town’s primary school, he phoned the principal. “It was quite out of the blue. I asked him not to hang up and reassured him I was not a crazy, and we struck up a conversation.” E-mail contact followed, as well as meetings of parents’ associations and boards of management on both sides of the North and Irish seas.

Last year, Mogen Hansen, principal of the Danish Borris school, visited Borris, Co Carlow.

“He wanted to have a look and to see if a trip by his sixth-class pupils would be feasible. And he was very happy.”

The Danes were welcomed to Borris yesterday afternoon by the Rathanna Marching Band, and dined in a local restaurant.

They will stay in the local vocational school for the four-night visit, where there are cooking and bathing facilities.

Today they will visit the scenic village of St Mullins and then climb Mount Leinster. There will also be a cinema evening, a visit to Borris House and Gardens, rollerskating, a visit to Borris National school, some Gaelic games and a traditional Irish music night.

Pádhraic Coady (12) said the visit was “really exciting” and he “couldn’t believe there was another place called Borris, that is even spelt the same”.

Robert Smedpedersen (13) from Denmark was also “very excited” about being in Ireland, while his classmate, Sune Stall Kristensen, said he was looking forward to seeing mountains.

“Denmark is kind of boring, very flat,” he said.