Cavan woman elected in German local elections

A Cavan woman has written her name into the record books by becoming the first Irish person to be elected to a local council position in the German State of Bavaria.
Colette (neé Duggan) Herrmann successfully stood as a candidate for Angela Merkel's CSU (Christian Social Democrats) party in the local elections in Kürnach last month, a municipality in the Lower Franconian district of Würzburg.
While the CSU remains Germany's largest political party nationally, they took a drubbing in the local polls, losing three seats in Kürnach alone. But Ballyhaise native Colette's election as a new candidate has been viewed as a welcome break in an otherwise cloudy political horizon.
“I feel so privileged, and really excited about the prospect of getting out there and taking this opportunity to further develop and shape the town of Kürnach,” Colette told The Anglo-Celt
Colette (nee Duggan), a Kindergarden administrator, is proud the people of Kürnach have taken her to their hearts as much as she has taken the area she considers “home” to hers.
“I am certainly the first European elected in Kürnach. We do have in Würzburg an Italian guy, but I might just be the first Irish. There are not that many Irish people living here.”
Despite the being in the minority, Würzburg, and more recently Kürnach, have a very strong Cavan connection, and particularly, the village of Mullagh.
St Kilian, a native of Mullagh, is the Apostle of modern day Bavaria, where he along with two of his companions Colmán and Totnan are venerated at Würzburg Cathedral where the martyrs were said to have met their grizzly deaths.
Their skulls, inlaid with precious stones, are preserved there, and on St Kilian's day, or Kiliani Fest, July 8 every year, a glass case containing the relics is paraded through the streets before large crowds.
Colette has lived in Kürnach or near to Würzburg since 1989, when she first travelled there as part of a group from Mullagh aged just 19 years.
She later married her, husband Professor Volker Hermann, and together the couple have two children - Lisa and, not unsuprisingly, Kilian.
The connection between Cavan and Kürnach has led a series of cultural exchanges in recent years, with a friendship pact signed, something Colette is anxious to have formalised.
In 2018 Colette led a delegation of more than 40 German pilgrims to east Cavan. It was her third time assisting such a trip. She had been due to host another group of more than 50 later this year but that has now been put “on hold” due to current restrictions around travel.
In July last year she was present when Council representatives and members of Mullagh Community Development Association met President Michael D. Higgins, his wife Sabina, and Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney, on their visit to Würzburg and Kürnach.
The visit, organised to coincide with Kiliani Fest, saw the President recognise and acknowledge the significant impact St Kilian had on the region.
Colette also helped facilitate a group of over 80 young musicians from Cavan Town Comhaltas visit Kürnach later that same month.
“One of my main aims in the next few years to see the signing of an official twinning between Cavan and Kürnach. We have very much in common, and on our visits we have exchanged cultural and economic aspects and experiences. The President visiting, I really enjoyed that moment. For me that was a very proud moment to be part of that, and to see Cavan represented also. I am very proud of where I'm from, and I am very proud of where I now call home.”
Outside of politics, Colette is well known in the Kürnach area as keen volunteer - being a member of the local development association and the town's Christmas Market committee.
But as a councillor, Colette and her fellow colleagues face similar challenges to those elected here in Ireland, no issue perhaps more pressing than the Covid-19 crisis.
There are at least 14 confirmed cases in Kürnach, a town of about 5,000 people.
“We don't have any deaths thank God, but this pandemic is obvious a reason to be very concerned. It's scary because we don't know what's ahead of us. I'm sure it's the same in Ireland at the present moment. But what I do know is we must all pull together on this, we must all work for each other to get through this, and hopefully we will."
Local Fianna Fail Cllr Shane P O'Reilly was Cathaoirleach of Cavan County Council circa 2014 when Colette first made contact with the local authority at the behest of those living in Würzburg. 
Welcoming her election, Cllr O'Reilly said he was “over the moon” by Colette's successful foray into local politics.
He says of the friendship-pact initiated between Cavan County Council and the local authority in Kürnach, that it has become a “fantastic link” between two areas that share a “very special” common interest.
"It was myself and Colette who organised that pact. Colette is a person who embodies in every sense what European relations is all about. She has opened a whole new process of thought, not only for myself, but I know other elected members also, of the German people and the support they give to Ireland.”