Sister City, Dublin, Ireland - San Jose, CA
Posted by: 
DougK
N 37° 19.695 W 121° 53.528
10S E 598149 N 4131862
Dublin, Ireland is one of San Jose, California's seven sister cities around the world.
Waymark Code: WM9NEN
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 09/08/2010
Views: 6
The sister city plaza is located along the Guadalupe Parkway Trail. The elegant item at the plaza is an Irish lamp pole with a Dublin coat of arms and a foundry stamp from the Hammond Lane Foundry in Dublin. It's topped with a glass globe surrounded by an ornate wrought iron design. Beside the pole is a bench with the inscription "O commemorate me with no hero-courageous Tomb-just a canal-back seat for the passer-by".
A large rock sits nearby, inscribed with an an Irish poem by O'Shaughnesy. The rock work of this plaza is nicely done and is also fitted with a 3D Dublin coat of arms.
From the nearby sign:
Dublin is one of Europe's most historic cities and as such, in 1991 was named the "European City of Culture". It is home to a number of outstanding universities and institutions of higher education, including Trinity College, Dublin City University, and University College Dublin.
Located on the east coast of Ireland near the Irish Sea, the city of Dublin has 500,000 residents, with a population of over 1.1 million in greater Dublin. A city of many rivers, the Liffey, Poddle, Dodder, and Tolka Rivers all inscribe its landscape.
A member of the European Union since 1973, Ireland transformed its economy during the 1990s, with business ties to the Silicon Valley contributing to the development of a dynamic information technology industry.
Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and San Jose, established their sister city relationship in 1986.
History of the Sister Cities Program
The Sister Cities Program began as an element of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's People-to-People Programs shortly after World War II. After meeting with American leaders from many fields, President Eisenhower proposed this initiative to engage private citizens in international diplomacy. By pairing like cities across the globe, the program sought to spark peace and conversation between people, without the influence of their respective governments.
San Jose has seven sister cities, which were chosen because of their social, economic, historic and cultural ties to the city: Okayama, Japan; San Jose, Costa Rica; Tainan Taiwan; Veracruz, Mexico; Dublin, Ireland; Pune India; and Ekaterinburg, Russia.