US ambassador returns to 'most special place in my heart'

US ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin, whose grandfather came from Moville, has described Inishowen as holding “the most special place in my heart”.

The ambassador met distant relatives on a visit to the peninsula on Tuesday during which she spent time in two schools in Moville, from where her grandfather emigrated in 1912.

From Boston, her great-grandfather came from Carrowmenagh and his family was one of 13 evicted from their homes in December 1881 by absentee landlord Hector Fredrick McNeil.

Her grandfather, Hugh McLaughlin, emigrated to Brooklyn via Glasgow before settling in Boston.

During the visit, the ambassador was met by one protester waving a Palestinian flag outside Scoil Eoghain and around a dozen more outside Moville Community College. Addressing the issue of the conflict in Gaza when speaking to history students in Moville Community College, she said a two-state solution is the aim of the US government. “Hopefully, with time and a lot of work - and it is not slogans that will get it done, it is the very hard work of diplomacy that we have working on it. Hopefully, the goal we are seeking is a two-state solution and we are working hard every day on that.”

The visit to Scoil Eoghain was the fulfilment of a promise made during a visit to Greencastle two years ago. During Tuesday’s visit, the school was presented with a cheque for $10,000  from the philanthropic organisation the Irish American Partnership.

The ambassador said she did not have a chance to visit the county for the first time until two years ago. “When I came here then I said I would be back and now I have been back twice and I expect to be back many, many more times.”

She thanked the school and staff for the warm welcome that “made the day so special for me”. 

She said that when growing up she had heard more stories from Donegal than anywhere else.

The ambassador also has connections with Galway, Cork and Clare “but the place that probably holds the most special place in my heart is here in the Inishowen peninsula”.

“Every time I come here I get emotional and I picture my granddad leaving here with his three brothers, never to return.”

The ambassador was greeted at  Scoil Eoghain by a guard of honour at the school gate waving US and Irish flags. She was entertained by a traditional music group made up of pupils, as well as Irish dancers, the recital of two poems by WB Yeats and a performance by the school’s  choir.

Pupils presented her with the gifts of a photograph of the Moville area and the Fid, the sculpture at the town’s pier which commemorates its connections with emigration.

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Principal Liam McDermott said it was great to have the ambassador visit the school. “Her ancestors are from Carrowmenagh and we met her before when she came to visit the area. She was talking to some of the children when they formed a guard of honour for her then and she said she would come back to visit the school and she has.”

At Moville Community College the ambassador was entertained by Irish dancers and traditional musicians and met members of the student council and took questions from history students.

She also met teacher Anne Marie Donaghy, a distant relative through the ambassador’s connection to the Carey family from Ballymacarthur near Greencastle, along with her children Cillian Doyle and Muireann Doyle and their cousin Dallan Curran, who are all students at the school.

“My great-great-grandfather and the ambassador’s great-great-grandfather were brothers,” Ms Donaghy said. 

“We have met her on a couple of occasions and it has been wonderful. She has a real rapport with here and she really appreciates it and she wants to learn about it. She is very rooted in her Donegal heritage and it is lovely.”

School principal Caroline Doherty said the visit made for  “a fantastic day” for the school community. “We were delighted that the ambassador was able to make a visit to the school,” she said.

“She seems to have a lot of family relations in Greencastle and in the Moville area so I believe the reason behind the visit was to visit her roots and visit her relations.”