A Tour of Irish Connections

A Tour of Irish Connections

I have always wanted to visit Ireland.  A connection to my ancestors has a lot to do with it.  Supposedly, my great grandfather Hugh emigrated from the area of Cork.  In 1841, at the age of seven he arrived by sloop on Chebeague Island, Maine, just north of Portland.  As years went by, he married on the island, had a son Henry (my grandfather), founded a small Protestant church of the Nazarene, and owned and captained a sloop he used to install and repair lighthouses along the coast.  Big pieces of Hugh’s history are missing, however.  For instance, he had a brother whose Catholicism is said to have caused some sort of early-age split.  What happened to the brother and to their parents?  Ancestry.com may be the answer, but in the meantime a 12-day bus tour around Ireland promised to suggest some personal connections I had wondered about.

I was not disappointed, but the people connections I discovered were unexpected.  They had little to do with Hugh Bowen, but everything to do with the way certain individuals have impacted the values, traditions, and history of the Irish.  Three vignettes illustrate this point.

First, on our second tour day out of Dublin, we arrived at a place called the Irish National Stud Gardens.  The place is a prime location for breeding equine champions, but also the location of an impressive Japanese garden, said to be the first of its kind in Europe.  Who connected these two things?  The Irish adore thoroughbred racing horses, and both breeding and betting on them is a way of life.  They can thank Colonel William Hall Walker (1856-1933) for nurturing their passion.   Walker was a gambler, commentator, and critic who developed a fascination for Eastern religions and astrology.  After purchasing a spacious plot of land for a stud farm, Walker proceeded to breed a long line of derby champions in the early 1900s.  His broodmare program was based on astrology.  Oddly enough, it worked!  Perhaps the celestially oriented setting of beautiful gardens facilitated happy breeding as well.  The horses we met at what has become National Stud were a famously sated bunch.

A second connection was cemented by a plaque posted to the lobby wall of the luxurious Europa Hotel in Belfast.  It commemorates the fact that President William Jefferson Clinton slept there in 1995. Why?  It is significant that the Europa was bombed 23 times by the Irish Republic Army but stubbornly remained open in the early 1990s.  But the key link belongs to Senator and special envoy George Mitchell from Maine.  He is still widely regarded as a national hero because, after being appointed to the task by President Clinton, Mitchell masterfully negotiated principles of nonviolence and a lasting peace between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to the south.  The “Troubles” of this era are deeply impressed in the minds and hearts of the Irish.  Reconciliation nowadays is a political rather than a violent matter, thanks to two American leaders and the miracle of skillful diplomacy.     

For a third and final connection, while traveling across a sparsely inhabited rocky landscape called the Burren, on our way to Galway, our tour bus suddenly encountered a jampacked town street lined with cars and campers on both sides.  We had arrived at the Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival of 2017.  This is Ireland’s biggest singles festival, which attracts love seekers for dancing, music, and “craic” (fun in Gaelic) for an entire month.  Apparently attracting over 60,000 people worldwide, the festival highlights a semi-retired plumber named Willie Daly who has gained fame as a traditional connector of couples.  Allegedly, if you touch his “lucky book” with both hands at his office in the Matchmaker Bar, you will be married in six months.  Obviously, Willie has legions of believers.

Great grandfather Hugh Bowen drew me to Ireland in the first place.  Most likely I discovered his place of embarkation to America, the port of Cobh, but other aspects of his history are shrouded in mystery.  What is very clear, however, is that Ireland is loaded with fascinating connections just waiting to test our curiosity and help us learn about ourselves, the emerald isle, and the history we share.    

Jeffrey Bowen

October 2, 2017