Obama unlikely to visit Mayo - but is Prince Albert coming?

COMING TO MAYO? Rumours are rife that Prince Albert of Monaco could be coming to visit Newport this summer.

Obama unlikely to visit Mayo - but is Prince Albert coming?


Áine Ryan

MONEYGALL is not in Mayo, so it is unlikely that US President Barack Obama will make it to the western county during his upcoming visit to Ireland in late May. However, speculation that Prince Albert 11 of Monaco may visit the ancestral home, near Newport, of his late mother, Princess Grace, was not dismissed by a Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman yesterday.
He told The Mayo News that the official announcement of the prince’s expected visit, from April 4 to 6, has yet to be made and that details of his programme would be released then. 
Tourism Minister Michael Ring confirmed to The Mayo News last night that a visit by Obama to Mayo was ‘very unlikely’, despite the positive impression left by Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Washington last week. However, he did say that the upcoming visits of President Obama and Queen Elizabeth would have a knock-on positive effect for tourism.
Regarding Prince Albert’s itinerary, Minister Ring said: “I will be doing my very best to influence any such decision.  Any dignitary that comes to this county is most welcome. And I will be meeting with tourism bodies in the near future to ensure aggressive campaigns are launched to capitalise on all these visits.”
He added that both the UK and US were the country’s biggest tourism markets and these visits afforded opportunities to put Ireland in the spotlight.
The late Princess Grace, along with her husband, the late Prince Rainier visited the ancestral home of her grandfather, John Kelly, at Drimurla, near Newport, in 1961.  John Kelly was born in a small cottage in Drimurla in 1857 and emigrated to Philadelphia 20 years later where he founded one of the city’s leading construction companies.
Reportedly, the princess bought the house and surrounding lands in 1976. Her untimely death, aged just 52, in a car accident in September 1982, meant her plans to build a holiday home were never realised.