Navan group heads off to namesake Canadian town

A group of 43 local people will travel to Canada on Wednesday of next week to promote the Boyne Valley region as a place to visit and do business in, as part of the Navan2Navan initiative. Navan2Navan is an initiative between the towns of Navan, County Meath, and Navan, Ontario, Canada, to develop cultural, enterprise and social links between Ireland and Canada using the two towns as central locations for this linkage. The link between the two towns originates with Michael O'Meara, who left his hometown of Navan, County Meath in 1840 and established the first post office in the Ottawa area which he named 'Navan' after his home town. Navan2Navan is dedicated to promoting the Boyne Valley area as a key tourist location for visitors to Ireland, as well as a key location for foreign direct investment by multinational companies. In January, the Mayor of Ottawa City Jim Watson wrote to Navan Mayor Anton McCabe to invite a delegation from Navan, Co Meath to visit their namesake Navan Ontario, and Ottawa city as a way of boosting tourism and trade between the two areas. A public meeting took place in the Lantern Pub to discuss a town response to this invitation. To read the full story see this week's Meath Chronicle