Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has said retracing his roots to the west of Ireland has been a “great thrill”.
Carney flew to Co Mayo on Sunday morning after spending Saturday in Dublin city as part of a two-day official visit.
He traces his heritage back to the village of Aughagower, where he met excited locals and some of his distant cousins, including his oldest living relatives, Maureen and Pat Carney.
He visited graves of his ancestors after attending mass and planting a tree in the sun soaked village on Sunday.
Joking with the priest by asking “can we have mass outside?”, Carney also met excited locals young and old – as well as some Canadian citizens who came to see him.
Commenting that “no one noticed” the last time he was in Aughagower in 2017, he said it was “remarkable” to be with those gathered.
Carney said it was an “honour” to be back, adding it provided a “sense of purpose” to engagements on the Ireland-Canada relationship.
The main road to the town was adorned with Canadian flags, which the prime minister said felt like a “welcome for Canada”.
“It is the ties of many Irish people to Canada, its what Canada represents for many people around the world: A force for good, a place that welcomes immigrants and makes them their own – and it is reciprocated.”
Asked if he had any advice for the Mayo gaelic football team, Carney said his guidance would not be to take his opinion on that sport.
However, it was a sign made that morning by Jack Langan caught the Prime Minister’s eye.
The nine-year-old said Carney told him his poster was “very nice”, adding that meeting the prime minister was a “once-off and great for the village”.
His mother Maryu said it was “fantastic” to see Carney, with an “amazing community spirit” in the village.
“His DNA runs through this village and it is just phenomenal to see him. He’s a fantastic world leader since he became prime minister.”
Carney spotted a 17-month old boy wearing a Montreal Canadiens hockey jersey.
After posing with the smiling Malachy Morgan, his mother Mary Rose Connell told the Press Association meeting Carney was “awesome”.
Originally from New Brunswick, she now lives 40 minutes away in Cornamona, Co Galway.
Rachel Basquel said there had been a “great buzz” around the village in preparing for the visit over the last two weeks, adding that locals have been “soaking int he atmosphere”.
Carney stopped to meet Ms Basquel and her nine-month-old daughter Lily Meskell.
She said there was “great excitement” about Carney coming to Aughagower, adding: “He is so important on the world stage at the moment and him coming over here really helps the trade relationship between Ireland and Canada.
“So it was really exciting to meet him – and knowing he has ancestral family from Mayo, it’s a really proud day for the village.”
The prime minister’s itinerary included a meeting with Irish President Catherine Connolly in the nearby Westport House, which he described as “wonderful”, and engagements with Taoiseach Micheál Martin in the Mayo seaside town.
Carney is the grandson of Irish emigrants Robert Carney and Nora Moran, from tenant farmer families, who were born in Mayo and left the country for Canada aboard the steamship Montnairn in July 1925.
Martin said Carney’s grandparents, who were born in Aughagower, would be “enormously proud” that their “sacrifices and hardships paved the way for his remarkable accomplishments and achievements”.
He said the day was significant for Carney to reconnect with his heritage, deepen Canadian-Irish ties, and for the Aughagower community who were “proud” to see a global figure come home.
“It’s wonderful for prime minister Carney that we’ve had these two days, and you could see he was beaming today because he was among his own.”
Martin said that after visiting the Book of Kells in Trinity College, the two men saw a page in the Book of Armagh that linked Aughagower to the country’s patron saint.
Earlier, Martin said: “The page opened for Tírechán’s account of St Patrick’s journey through Mayo and he visits – you won’t believe it – Aughagower before going to Croagh Patrick.”
He said that Saint Patrick told the people “there will be good bishops here, and from their seed, blessed people will come forth forever in this sea”.
Martin went on to joke: “I knew he was a visionary, but I never quite knew that St Patrick was that visionary – and he clearly had Mark Carney in mind.”
The Taoiseach also referenced the “extraordinary journey” of Carney’s grandparents in search of a better life across the Atlantic.
“They could scarcely have imagined that one day their grandson would return to Ireland as prime minister of Canada, welcomed by the people of the country they left behind.”
On Saturday, the two leaders announced a new “bilateral co-operation framework” on trade and investment, life sciences, research and innovation, and security and defence.
