DUNFERMLINE folk singer and friendship ambassador Gifford Lind will be packing more than his guitar with him when he flies out to perform on 31st January at a Burns supper in Dunfermline’s twin town of Trondheim.

Gifford, convener of the Dunfermline-Trondheim twinning association, will be exploring initiatives with his Norwegian counterparts on how best to mark the 70th anniversary of one of the oldest twinning links in Europe.

Gifford said, “The link was formed in 1945 and the very first ships to free Trondheim brought with them a bond of friendship which had been adopted by a group of over 1000 young people meeting in the Regal cinema in Dunfermline.

“It was an initiative which was taken because there was the feeling that something should be done to win and sustain the peace. So it was a very laudable and very worthwhile thing at the time and really something for which the young people of Dunfermline should be given a great deal of praise for having initiated and carried out.

“I first got involved way back in 1998 and it has taken me outside of Dunfermline and made me look back at the place. I think we all need to do that because it lets you see your own place and your values in a different way – it also lets you hear what other people think of your own town.” Talking about his latest visit to the Norwegian city, Gifford told the Press, “I’ll be staying in Trondheim for a week with the friends I’ve made. There are plans to meet people at the council and they have all said in the past that they are keen to do things.

“I’ll be singing along with seven others – six Norwegians and an Aberdonian – and we’ll be performing Burns’ songs sung in harmonies arranged specially for this visit. I’m very much looking forward to going and seeing people I’ve had contact with.” Gifford stressed that there was a great deal of “emotional connection” with Dunfermline among the older people in Trondheim and that the younger people were now hearing about it as well.

“This year will be the 70th anniversary of the start of that twinning and I have a list of initiatives to be taken this year to try to make things happen,” he said.

“Three years ago we did a democracy project involving young people from the twinned cities. The more I think about it, the more I realise that democracy is what this is all about because if you have a democracy that doesn’t involve everybody, some people will get to the position where they may think to do something violent against others. So inclusion is important.

“That was confirmed to me when we were planning a visit from the youth council of Trondheim. A young man blew up the centre of Oslo and then went up to an island and shot a large number of young people. The young people who were due to visit us had relatives and friends who were killed in that incident. When we realised that, I put this point to the organiser who then consulted with the youth, who said, ‘No. We need to come. We need to develop democracy. We need young people to understand it.’ “That represents one of the priorities that we would see in renewing the bond of friendship this year, which is to get young people involved in democracy, in talking to one another and in being friends with one another.”