Westport and Aughagower abuzz with excitement ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's homecoming
Flags are flying and history is in the air as the Canadian Prime Minister prepares to visit his ancestral homeland in Co. Mayo this Sunday.
The distinctive Maple Leaf is everywhere in Westport. Canadian flags flutter proudly from shop fronts across the town, and at local retailer Thomas Moran's, they are flying out the door — quite literally.
Such has been the demand that Moran's has had to place three separate orders in recent days, selling close to a hundred flags as the town gears up for the arrival of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
The excitement is not confined to Westport alone. A few miles away, in the small but historically rich village of Aughagower, pride runs even deeper.
This is the ancestral homeplace of the Canadian leader — the grandson of Robert Carney from Ayle and Nora Moran from Mace — and locals are acutely aware of the significance of the moment. As one resident put it to The Mayo News, Carney will be the most distinguished visitor to Aughagower since St. Patrick himself.
‘Brimming with history’
That comparison to the patron saint of Ireland is not made lightly in Aughagower. The village carries centuries of history within it, and locals are proud custodians of that legacy.
"If you walk around the village, you'll see it's just brimming full of history," says Aughagower resident and member of the Aughagower Community Council, Lisa McNamara.
"St. Patrick departed here in the fifth century to spend 40 days and 40 nights on Croagh Patrick, and we also have a well here called St. Patrick's Well, where he would have baptized the early Christians. It is absolutely brimming with history."
Into that deep well of history, a new chapter is now being written. Michael Heraty, who lives in Mace just outside Aughagower and is related to Mark Carney through the Moran line, notes that the parish's story stretches back centuries — and that this homecoming feels like a natural continuation of it.
From an X on a Page to the G7 Table
For many in the parish, one moment has resonated above all others: a video in which Carney speaks of discovering his grandfather's baptismal record from Aughagower church, and of the striking sight of his great-grandfather's name signed with a simple X.
Local poet and commentator Ger Reidy found that image deeply moving. "You're not included in society if you cannot read or write," he reflects. "So that's a very poignant moment to see that. And just a number of generations later, Mark finally returns as the head of one of the most powerful seven nations in the world."
For Reidy, Carney's return carries a meaning that extends far beyond family sentiment. He sees in the Canadian Prime Minister something the world is badly in need of right now — a leader capable of building bridges.
"It has something to do with bringing a coalition of people who are against war together — war and peace," he says. "The middle countries, they're not ruled by oligarchs or people with massive narcissistic egos.
“It's kind of bringing a coalition of people with rational thoughts together, so that there can be a degree of stability in the world, which is badly needed now. That's why we're very proud of him."
An empathy forged by emigration
Reidy, who has written a poem in Carney's honour ahead of the visit, believes the Prime Minister's family story gives him a rare perspective that informs his politics.
"I think he has an empathy for people who've had to emigrate, because his family had to emigrate," he says. "Part of the war now is because of the refugees — people always have to leave a war-worn location. Our grandparents, great-grandparents always left."
"He knows what it is not to have a state. He knows what it is not to have any kind of support and to grind out a new living. He has an empathy and understanding of that."
As Sunday approaches and the Maple Leaf continues to flutter above the streets of Westport, that sense of connection — between a small Mayo parish and one of the world's most powerful leaders — feels very real indeed.