Mark Carney visits ancestral village in Mayo
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<figure><img src="https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/web/20260609-143108-fe43574f32-web-3.9.0-5/grey-placeholder.png" /><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/d2af/live/0f153470-67dc-11f1-9c4b-77e30dd66647.jpg.webp" />PA Media</figure>
<p>Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has travelled to County Mayo on the second day of his visit to the Republic of Ireland.</p>
<p>Carney, who <a target="_self" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xpv8v7v9o">spent Saturday in Dublin</a> with Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin, met his cousins on Sunday in Aughagower &#8211; the village his grandparents, Robert and Nora Moran, left when they emigrated to Canada in 1925.</p>
<p>Carney has said he is proud of his family heritage and described his Irish ancestry as a &#8220;big part of who I am&#8221;.</p>
<p>Irish President Catherine Connolly met Carney in Westport House on Sunday morning.</p>
<p>Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTÉ, Carney said he was encouraged by the progress made towards <a target="_self" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cj0grpyg4v1t">a potential and more durable ceasefire between the US and Iran.</a></p>
<p>He said the question of how to &#8220;reinforce&#8221; the ceasefire would be &#8220;topic number one&#8221; for Monday&#8217;s G7 Summit in France.</p>
<figure><img src="https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/web/20260609-143108-fe43574f32-web-3.9.0-5/grey-placeholder.png" /><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/f571/live/65cc5f50-67ff-11f1-9446-05fff8c055e2.png.webp" />PA Media</figure>
<p>During his Mayo visit, the Canadian prime minister and his wife Diana Fox Carney attended Mass at the parish church and visited a graveyard where some of his relatives are buried.</p>
<p>When asked what it was like to be in Aughagower, Carney said: &#8220;It&#8217;s fantastic to be back, I&#8217;ve been here twice, but no one noticed the last few times I came, so it&#8217;s a great thrill.&#8221;</p>
<p>Carney met more than 20 of his cousins including Pat Carney and Maureen O&#8217;Malley, first cousins of his father and two of the prime minister&#8217;s closest Irish relatives.</p>
<p>After Mass, Carney planted an Irish oak tree in the cemetery.</p>
<p>He joked that he had a previous &#8220;career as a gardener&#8221;, and his wife Diana Fox quoted Christy Moore&#8217;s Don&#8217;t Forget Your Shovel as he worked.</p>
<p>Speaking after the Mass, he thanked people for coming and encouraged them to visit what was once &#8220;Carney&#8217;s sweetshop&#8221; and the local pub.</p>
<figure><img src="https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/web/20260609-143108-fe43574f32-web-3.9.0-5/grey-placeholder.png" /><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/6aa1/live/37aa8600-680a-11f1-a177-65e13786d3a5.png.webp" />Reuters</figure>
<p>Earlier, Maureen O&#8217;Malley&#8217;s daughter, Rosaleen Heraty, told RTÉ about the family connection.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mam and Pat&#8217;s father was John Carney and he was the brother of Robert Carney, who is Mark Carney&#8217;s grandfather. Imagine, his grandson is the prime minister of Canada,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all we can talk about, generations of the Carney clan, and we are so excited to finally meet him.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you compare photos of him and his grandfather Robert, there is an uncanny likeness. I noticed it when I spotted him on the telly when he was Governor of the Bank of England. I saw the name Carney and saw the face and said it to Mam.</p>
<p>&#8220;She hardly missed a beat and just said &#8216;ah yeah, we haven&#8217;t seen them for years&#8217;,&#8221; said Heraty.</p>
<figure><img src="https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/web/20260609-143108-fe43574f32-web-3.9.0-5/grey-placeholder.png" /><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/6d2a/live/8db2df70-67ce-11f1-976f-037e94a9a9e5.jpg.webp" />Reuters</figure>
<p>The Carney and Moran families were tenant farmers on the estate of Lord Sligo.</p>
<p>The Carney homestead, located in the townland of Ayle, was a standard rural dwelling of the time: a thatched cottage with two windows in the front. Nine people lived in two rooms, with a third room added later.</p>
<p>The Moran home in the townland of Mace North was nearby.</p>
<p>Both Ayle and Mace were in the parish of Aughagower, where, according to local lore, St Patrick is believed to have stopped off on his way to Croagh Patrick.</p>
<figure><img src="https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/web/20260609-143108-fe43574f32-web-3.9.0-5/grey-placeholder.png" /><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/e2f8/live/ecec9e90-67ce-11f1-976f-037e94a9a9e5.jpg.webp" />Reuters</figure>
<p>The prime minister&#8217;s grandparents would have faced much hardship during their life in Ireland, living through a period of upheaval and transformation that followed the Irish famine.</p>
<p>When they left, they would have become part of the wave of mass emigration that saw more than one million people sail from the island.</p>
<p>The couple emigrated to Canada in 1925, married the following year and had three sons.</p>
<figure><img src="https://static.files.bbci.co.uk/bbcdotcom/web/20260609-143108-fe43574f32-web-3.9.0-5/grey-placeholder.png" /><img src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/1cf3/live/6f5a4870-6831-11f1-922d-f5dbb8adf3ec.jpg.webp" />Reuters</figure>
<p>On Sunday night, Carney attended a reception in Westport where he was gifted a civic scroll by Mayo County Council.</p>
<p>During the ceremony he was also presented with a commemorative history of the Carneys, written by local Westport historian Harry Hughes, alongside fellow researchers and editors James Kelly and Micheál Casey.</p>

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