{"id":736535,"date":"2026-06-14T16:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T16:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/736535\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T16:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T16:54:11","slug":"carney-visits-familys-ancestral-home-during-irish-trip-exciting-day-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/736535\/","title":{"rendered":"Carney visits family\u2019s ancestral home during Irish trip: \u2018Exciting day\u2019 – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Showing a more personal side during his state visit to Ireland, Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> visited the village of Aghagower, his family\u2019s ancestral home, on <\/a>Sunday morning where he was greeted by cheering villagers and streets lined with Canadian flags.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Members of the crowd, some of whom travelled up to an hour to greet the prime minister, shouted \u201cwelcome home\u201d as Carney arrived at St. Patrick\u2019s Church for morning mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor my little son to meet him too, or to see him, it\u2019s just an exciting day,\u201d said Mary Rose Connell, a Canadian living in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Connell\u2019s son got that chance as the prime minister greeted them both and picked up the little boy, telling him \u201cthis is all for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tPrime Minister Mark Carney hoists 18-month-old Malachy Morgan wearing a Montreal Canadiens\u2019 jersey, in Aghagower, County Mayo, Ireland, on Sunday, June 14, 2026.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christopher Katsarov\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Carney also made a private stop at the graves of his great-grandparents and planted an Irish oak a few metres from the burial site to commemorate his visit.<\/p>\n

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Carney\u2019s Sunday trip wasn\u2019t entirely personal, though. Along with visiting the village, the prime minister\u2019s schedule included a meeting with Irish President Catherine Connolly.<\/p>\n

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A readout from the Prime Minister\u2019s Office said the pair reflected on the \u201cstrong kinship\u201d between Canada and Ireland and stressed the importance of bilateral cooperation.<\/p>\n

At a press conference following his Aghagower visit, Carney told reporters Canada wants to deepen ties with Ireland and the European Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not satisfied with the status quo, we see a significant opportunity with Ireland, more broadly with the European Union, to deepen our commercial relationships with them,\u201d Carney said.<\/p>\n

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He noted Ireland would be taking on the presidency of the EU for six months starting in July and that it would be putting a focus on competitiveness. The prime minister told reporters this included deeper commercial relationships and reducing red tape.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s meeting came a day after<\/a> Carney and Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Ireland\u2019s head of government, agreed to work together on artificial intelligence, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and food security.<\/p>\n

Before departing Dublin on Saturday, Carney was given a plaque from the deputy commissioner of operations of the An Garda Siochana, the national policy and security service of the Republic of Ireland. Carney\u2019s grandfather, Robert Carney, was one of the first men to join the Garda when it was established in 1922.<\/p>\n

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Back in Aghagower, one local shop is bringing a small taste of Canada to Ireland in honour of Carney\u2019s visit. JP Scott, owner of Scott\u2019s Bar and Grocery, created a sundae featuring maple syrup in Carney\u2019s honour. Scott didn\u2019t say if the ice-cream treat, dubbed \u201cMark\u2019s Maple Sundae, uses real Canadian maple syrup, but he did note Canadians have been visiting the village since Carney became prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as it was announced that he was becoming prime minister in Canada, we had a steady stream of a lot of Canadian tourists coming on day trips out of the village.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014with files from Global News\u2019 Jillian Piper<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Showing a more personal side during his state visit to Ireland, Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the village…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,23285,2659,44],"class_list":["post-736535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ireland","tag-mark-carney","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}