![\"Taoiseach](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/QXHVFS2V3JO7FOFQCP4XWJQGRI.jpg\")
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin (Conor O Mearain\/PA) <\/p>\nCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has travelled to the home county of his Irish grandparents.<\/p>\n
Mr Carney flew to Co Mayo on Sunday morning after spending Saturday in Dublin city.<\/p>\n
He traces his heritage back to Aughagower and is expected to meet cousins.<\/p>\n
He was also scheduled to spend parts of the day in the seaside town of Westport.<\/p>\n
His itinerary included a meeting with Irish President Catherine Connolly at Westport House and engagements with Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin.<\/p>\n
Mr 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.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin said Mr 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
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin (Conor O Mearain\/PA) <\/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
Mr 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \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
Mr 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
The Taoiseach also referenced the \u201cextraordinary journey\u201d of Mr 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
He told Mr Carney that when he walks the roads his grandparents walked in Mayo, he would discover that \u201cIreland never forgets her own\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Taoiseach](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/FBDDWIRSVBPVZBU6AWJPO5NKEU.jpg\")
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin TD greets Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney (Conor O Mearain\/PA) <\/p>\n
Referencing the poem Thresholds by Irish poet John O\u2019Donohue, Mr 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
He added: \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 new \u201cbilateral co-operation framework\u201d on trade and investment, life sciences, research and innovation, and security and defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has travelled to the home county of his Irish grandparents. Mr Carney flew…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[31178,31177,33636,32322,489,33406,111,113,30583,33637],"class_list":["post-87729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-catherine-connolly","tag-micheal-martin","tag-aughagower","tag-co-mayo","tag-dublin","tag-irish","tag-mark-carney","tag-politics","tag-republic-of-ireland","tag-westport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87729","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=87729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}