Mark Carney Visits Mayo
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The grandparents of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Kearney left Oghagower, a small village in Mayo, in July of 1925. Robert Kearney and Nora Moran emigrated to Canada and today their grandson is returning to the village. The excitement around Oghagower has been building since the announcement. There are Canadian flags hanging outside several houses while the village itself is decorated with bunting. At the heart of Oghagower is Scott's, the local shop, post office and pub. Owner, JP Scott, says the excitement surrounding the visit has been growing in the last few days.
It's a huge honour for us Maggie here, it's amazing.
What is the significance of Mark Carney's visit to Mayo?
Since we heard the story breaking about two years ago that he was going to be the Prime Minister in Canada, you know, and then the news came too that he had relations here, we said this is amazing, maybe this man might come back to our small village at some place, you know, and you're always dreaming about, you know, you've seen JFK back in New Ross way back and Obama. and Ronnie Regan and then Joe Biden, you know, we said, this is amazing if it happens. You know, and now it's happened, we can't believe it. It's been great. We've been, as you can see, we have the bunting up, we have the flags up. The local community have been involved and backed up by Mayor County Council to get the place tidied up.
Although the place is very tidy anyway, it's because we're involved in the National Tidy Towns competition and we have won numerous honours in that over the last few years. But the build-up has been great and everybody has been so accommodating and local bodies all coming together, you know. We're really delighted like that. He's, you know, coming to Dublin, but he seems to be heading straight for Westport and O'Haggar, like, you know, and to think that he'll be walking in the footsteps of his ancestors from that little town and back to the village, you know, here where his ancestors, his grandparents would have come here, would have come into this village, into this shop and post office and done their business and now we're going to have him.
Mr Kearney still has lots of family here. It's hoped he'll meet with his second cousin, Pat Kearney, a man in his 90s, while his second cousin, once removed, Gus Herity, is also hoping to meet with him today.
Oh, it's awful exciting, all together. My brother is really involved in it. He has done a tremendous amount of work, and like the rest of the community as well. Over the last couple of weeks, it's unreal. We're trying to get everything tip-top, everything in shape, you know. It's brilliant. When I was young, I didn't know about it. I had heard we were cousins of the Morans, but you know, when you're young, you don't take no heed. And it's brilliant to find out. It's only lately we found out the real cousin we are, second cousins once removed, which is brilliant, and we're all excited.
The community centre has been turned into an exhibition for the visit. There are five different sections on show, Oghagower to Canada, the relatives of Nora Moran, maps of Oghagower, UNESCO Global Geoparks, genealogy of the Kearney Moran families.
How is the community preparing for Mark Carney's arrival?
On each wall there are boards mounted explaining the history of Mr Kearney's roots in the village. Chairperson of Oghagower Community Council Colette Sheridan explains the work that went into it.
It's exceptional, it turned out really really well. A lot of work went into that I suppose between the community and Harry Hughes and his historical group and a local girl, Lisa McNamara. And we got a professionally mounted yesterday morning from the famous Chris Harper. He's amazing. It's a tale. You walk around and it's the story. Not in a book, but just up a wall. A picture tells a tale, I suppose. So, yeah, it's fabulous.
Mr Kearney is meeting President Catherine Connolly in Westport this morning before travelling to Hoggower this afternoon. While he's there, he's expected to attend local mass and meet his relations and the community.
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