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27 Sept 2025
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27 Sept 2025
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Msgr Patrick Hambrough and friends from St Louis took in a visit to Ballintubber Abbey after attending Mass in St Michael's church in Taugheen, home parish of his late father. Pic: Michael Donnelly.
There was a warm welcome for Msgr Patrick Hambrough and his entourage of around 40 from St Louis, Missouri, on their recent visit to St Michael’s Church, Taugheen. Members of the local community were present to greet the visitors and make them feel very much at home during their three hours in Taugheen. His father, Patrick Hamrogue, Ballydaff, Taugheen, known locally as Pake, emigrated from Mayo to America in the 1950s. Somewhere along the way, the name was changed from Hamrogue to Hambrough and appears with both spellings in different Irish Census records.
Retired school teacher, Ger McHugh, delivered a fine address of welcome to Msgr Patrick and his friends from America prior to the start of Mass in Taugheen Church. Gerry painted a picture in words of how life was in the area in the time that Msgr’s father left Mayo for America and also how the bonds of friendship endured all down the years. Msgr Patrick, a noted preacher and was the recipient of the Aquinas Institute of Theology Great Preacher Award back in 2008 and who was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis in 1985, told the gathering he was so happy to be home in the land of his father.
He recalled a family visit to Taugheen back in 1970 and a trip to climb Croagh Patrick where his brother got lost and was missing for several hours before news came through that he had been found safe. He recalled at ease memories of some of the local people in the Taugheen area on that visit including Ned and Bridie Campbell and Luke Gilligan and how much the visit meant to his father Pake and the family and also consolidated his abiding fondness for this region of Mayo.
Following a lovely reception with food and refreshments in the nearby Community centre, the group departed for Ballintubber Abbey where they were given a guided tour and later adjourned for the night to Westport. They made the journey to Knock Shrine the next morning where Msgr Hambrough celebrated Mass in the Parish Church before heading back down south again bringing with them very special memories of their time in the West of Ireland.
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