{"id":87716,"date":"2026-06-14T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/87716\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T10:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T10:00:06","slug":"canadian-prime-minister-mark-carney-returns-home-to-co-mayo-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/87716\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian prime minister Mark Carney returns \u2018home\u2019 to Co Mayo \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian prime minister Mark Carney<\/a> has arrived in the home county of his Irish grandparents.<\/p>\n

Carney, in Ireland for a two-day visit, flew to Co Mayo<\/a> on Saturday morning after spending Saturday in Dublin city. <\/p>\n

It is the first bilateral visit to Ireland by a Canadian<\/a> prime minister in almost 10 years, and the first official visit to Co Mayo.<\/p>\n

His itinerary includes a visit with President Catherine Connolly<\/a> and engagements with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carney is the grandson of Irish emigrants<\/a> who were born in Mayo and left the country more than 100 years ago for Canada.<\/p>\n

He traces his heritage back to Aughagower and will also spend much of the day in Westport.<\/p>\n

Martin said Carney\u2019s grandparents, who were born in Aughagower, would be \u201cenormously proud\u201d that their \u201csacrifices and hardships paved the way for his remarkable accomplishments and achievements\u201d.<\/p>\n

At an event at Dublin Castle on Saturday, the Taoiseach suggested that the prime minister\u2019s historical ties to Ireland stretch back even further.<\/p>\n

He 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\u2019s patron saint.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Mark Carney pays tribute to John De Chastelain in Dublin lectureOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Martin said: \u201cThe page opened for T\u00edrech\u00e1n\u2019s account of St Patrick\u2019s journey through Mayo and he visits \u2013 you won\u2019t believe it \u2013 Aughagower before going to Croagh Patrick.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that paragraph, Patrick consecrates a church in that place, Aughagower, with the maiden Mathona, who\u2019s clearly setting up, we think, a nunnery there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd Patrick said to the people gathered \u2018there will be good bishops here, and from their seed, blessed people will come forth forever in this sea\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin went on to joke: \u201cI knew he was a visionary, but I never quite knew that St Patrick was that visionary \u2013 and he clearly had Mark Carney in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Canadian prime minister Mark Carney\u2019s grandfather\u2019s heroics during the Civil WarOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach also referenced the \u201cextraordinary journey\u201d of Carney\u2019s grandparents in search of a better life across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CanadianCanadian prime minister Mark Carney speaking during a visit to Trinity College Dublin. Photograph: Conor O Mearain\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

He told Carney that when he walks the roads his grandparents walked in Co Mayo, he would discover that \u201cIreland never forgets her own\u201d.<\/p>\n

Referencing the poem Thresholds by John O\u2019Donohue, Carney told the same event: \u201cMy grandparents crossed their threshold in Mayo a century ago \u2013 into a life of a country that was still building itself, as Canada always has.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they were part of four and a half million Canadians who are the product of similar decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, half a million people who travel between our countries every year cross thresholds.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, there\u2019s one other threshold that I\u2019ll mention at which Canada, Ireland, Europe now stand \u2013 and that\u2019s the rupture in the global system.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom rules-based to arms-based, from right to might, from values to vanquished.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere will we go, and to what purpose? And I\u2019d suggest that the thresholds that we have crossed and those before us have crossed, the shared values that have been forged in doing so, will bring us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the two leaders announced<\/a> a new \u201cbilateral co-operation framework\u201d on trade and investment, life sciences, research and innovation, and security and defence. \u2013 PA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has arrived in the home county of his Irish grandparents. Carney, in Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31178,31177,17,111,31189],"class_list":["post-87716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-micheal-martin","tag-canada","tag-mark-carney","tag-mayo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}