Prospective Independent candidate for the Roscommon South Leitrim by-election and Former Mayor of Roscommon Tom Crosby and his wife Pauline, are pictured at the Rose of Tralee Festival this week in the Dome with Scramogue native Anthony O’Gara and his wife Onagh O’Gara.
Also pictured is Former Roscommon Independent Councillor Tom Crosby meeting his namesake, organiser of the Electric Picnic Festival Tom Crosby with Onagh O’Gara, a native of Scramogue County Roscommon.
Also pictured is Southern California Downey Rose Katie Bergman. CountyRoscommon has strong links with the City of Downey as they were twinned with each other in 2013. As then Mayor of County Roscommon, Tom Crosby was instrumental in establishing the twinning of the City of Downey and signed the Charter in the Chamber in Roscommon County Council in May 2013 to this effect. Downey was named after Roscommon native John Gately Dooney, whose parents were Denis Downey and Bridget Gately. He was born in 1827 in the town land of Castlesampson in the parish of Taughmaconnell in South Roscommon.
In 1842 at the age of just fifteen, he left for America and when gold was discovered in California he joined the rush to the West Coast. He was elected to the Los Angeles City Council and in 1859 his name was put forward as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, in which he emerged victorious. A resolution was passed at a special meeting of Downey CityCouncil in 2013 proclaiming County Roscommon Ireland as a Sister City of Downey and as then Mayor and Cllr, Tom Crosby developed a strong relationship with the Downey Association. The special relationship between both communities contributed to significant economic and tourism benefits for both regions which it is hoped will continue well into the future and ultimately contribute to a 
better mutual understanding of each other’s heritage.