Waterford Rotary
Viking Danish Exchange
Twinning with Rotary Club Slagelse Denmark
and the Harald Bluetooth Guild
July 2023
Our first Rotary Viking student exchange with
Rotary Club of Slagelse Denmark
For several years, Harald Bluetooth Guild has been in contact with the Irish embassy regarding the possibility of a youth exchange programme, where a young Dane and a young Irishman would spend a week as guests in the respective countries.
The purpose of the exchange program is to provide an introduction to the country’s culture and not least to the dissemination of the Viking Age locally and nationally.
For several years, this program has been on the desk, but the Corona era put a damper on the wheel.
Now the program has taken a long step forward.
The Irish embassy in Copenhagen and the Danish embassy in Dublin have created the official breeding ground for a contact with the City Council in Waterford, which is a few hours’ train journey south of Dublin. Waterford is known as a central area in Viking history.
Based on meetings with the City Council in Waterford, the picture is now emerging of an exchange program that will run for the next five years.
The great support from the embassies and the City Council has supported a future collaboration partly between Trelleborg Museum and Waterford Treasures Museum and partly between local Rotary clubs in Slagelse and Waterford.
The exchange program has attracted a lot of attention from Irish Tourism, who see positive development opportunities for tourism between Ireland and Denmark.
The first exchange was launched in July 2023.
https://haraldblaatand.dk/en/irsk-udveksling/