Dingle: she’s our Sister City. A small town of under 2,000 residents, the seaside Irish city on the far west side of the island nation shares a kinship with our own through the Sister Cities International diplomacy program. Dingle will be the subject of an upcoming dinner meeting and presentation by the Santa Barbara/Dingle Ireland Sister City Committee at Mulligan’s Café (3500 McCaw Ave.) on Wednesday, July 12, beginning at 6 p.m. Mayor Helene Schneider and S.B. artist Thomas Van Stein will speak about their recent trips to Dingle. I talked to Van Stein about what drew him to Dingle and what summer life is like in the Sister City.
What brought you to Ireland? I’ve always had a fascination and an ear for Irish music, and then I’ve raised my kids with that awareness of Irish music, and I love to play it, as well. I knew Willy Quinn, and Willy invited me to the Sister Cities meeting. I told Willy I wanted to go to his native land; it was one of the only countries in the world I have not been to, and I was thinking about going in June …. I went to the meeting, and this voice spoke up and said, “Well you should come with us! We’re going next week.” It was the mayor, Helene Schneider. … I wound up arriving to Ireland three days in advance of anyone else, sort of like the advanced recon. …
I made my way down to Dingle in advance of everybody else and covered a lot of ground: In one day, we took 15,000 steps in one day. I met a lot of the local artists, interviewed them, took pictures of their work. My vantage point was to eventually set up some form of an exchange program between the artist colony of Santa Barbara and the artist colony of Dingle. When the mayor arrived with other Santa Barbarans, I ended up having meals with them, and as a result, meeting with some from the Dingle Business Chamber and having dignitary meetings, and I kind of fit right in there.