Canada’s Carney charms Irish county, meets dozens of newfound cousins

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spent Sunday, June 14, in County Mayo, Ireland, as part of his first official visit to the country. The day began with discussions behind closed doors with Irish President Catherine Connolly at Westport House. However, the highlight was his visit to the village of Aghagower, where dozens of cousins and hundreds of locals gathered outside St. Patrick’s Church to welcome him, alongside Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Carney tried to shake everyone’s hand, noting that Mass was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. He paused to take a photo with 17-month-old Malachy Morgan, whose mother wore a Montreal Canadiens jersey. Carney expressed his delight in French at seeing the jersey, "particularly in the west of Ireland."

Inside the church where his paternal grandparents, Robert Carney and Nora Moran, were baptized, Carney sat in the front pew with his closest Irish relatives, Pat Carney and Maureen O’Malley. After Mass, he visited the village’s only shop—also a post office and pub—and toured the cemetery, where many headstones bore the Carney name. Locals remarked on his strong resemblance to his grandfather Robert; Carney agreed, saying, "The genes are strong."

Later, a civic reception at Westport’s theater featured a 28-page booklet detailing Carney’s Aghagower roots and a poem by local poet Ger Reidy, praising Carney as "a voice of sanity in a loony world" and calling for a "coalition of the anti-war."