Radical plans have been revived to twin Newry with Dundalk to create a vibrant new city with the potential to attract investment worth billions of euro.
The idea was first floated in 2003 at the Ireland-Harvard conference. It was reinforced earlier this year when the Buchanan Report indicated that there was "a strong strategic case" for a twin city region at the centre of the Belfast-Dublin corridor.
The renowned academic Edward Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick, added his voice to the debate during a wide-ranging address at a conference entitled Growing Dundalk – Engineering Economic Success.
The event in the Park Inn Hotel took forward a range of issues for making the area a vibrant place in which to invest, live and work.
The conference covered a wide agenda including clustering, retailing, financial services, sustainable energy, the tourism product and also planning.
Dr Walsh claimed there were mutual benefits for Newry and Dundalk to work in closer collaboration.
He mooted the initial amalgamation of their respective chambers of commerce followed by a formal twinning and the creation of a joint city council.
He suggested that businesses, in partnership with the local authority, commission a "wow" plan for the Dundalk urban core, with an iconic "wow" building as the focal point of a high-rise business development that could eventually provide a model for town planning in Ireland.
"Berlin has transformed itself with the best of modern architecture to symbolise the end of German conflict.
"The 'wow' plans for a new Newry-Dundalk city and its associated new e-villages can symbolise internationally the end of Ireland's conflict," Dr Walsh said.
"Leadership in Dundalk-Newry could attract international attention for their vision, courage and leadership in putting old enmity aside and coming together in friendship and partnership."
Dr Walsh set out a number of other goals for the region, including:
- to make Dundalk the location with the highest-quality and best-maintained business park outside Dublin
- to establish the reputation of Dundalk Institute of Technology as an exemplar in the fields of financial services, bio/pharma manufacturing technology, entrepreneurship and cross-border research
- for Newry Institute and Dundalk Institute of Technology, with support from the University of Ulster, to build partnerships in achieving excellence in financial and business services
- to make Newry, Dundalk and the Carlingford region a symbol of the triumph of peace over conflict, an international showcase of the best of urban and rural development and a honey pot for international investment.
Earlier this year a high-powered task force drawn from the public and private sectors was convened in Dundalk to help capitalise on its potential as Ireland's "growth region" of the next decade.
One of the key objectives of the new Economic Development Group is to oversee Dundalk's elevation to Ireland's first new city of the 21st century.
The group is chaired by Louth-born businessman Peter Malone, who was another speaker at the Dundalk conference, along with Ulster Bank Group chief economist Pat McArdle, Failte Ireland general manager Kevin Kidney and Deirdre Lyons of IDA Ireland.
