Athlone goes FairTrade

Athlone Committee receives their fair trade banana

After just a year of coordination, the fair town of Athlone has become the Fair Trade town of Athlone.

That’s right, this past week Athlone became the 19th Irish Fair Trade town. The endeavour is the brainchild of local franciscan friar, Fr. Gearoid O’Connell, who is chairman of the Athlone Fair Trade committee.

In an article in a local newspaper, the friar said, “I worked in El Salvador for fourteen years from 1984 through to 1998, so I’ve experience of what life is like for the people and how difficult it is to find markets for their products. Arising out of that experience I’ve seen the division in the world between the haves and the have nots,”

I had seen the Fair Trade logo on products around town, but was surprised and pleased to see my local community participating in something like this.

Interested in eco-tourism? Check out the Eco travel logue.