Robert Carney fought 50 armed men, Taoiseach Of Ireland
Mark Carney’s first official visit to Ireland has brought a new family-history finding into view for the taoiseach of ireland: his grandfather Robert helped defend a police station against 50 armed men in 1923. The research links Canada’s prime minister to an Irish family story that moved from County Mayo and County Cavan to Quebec and Vancouver.
Fiona Fitzsimons of the Irish Family History Centre at Dublin’s Irish Emigration Museum said the episode was found in local newspaper accounts. “It was incredibly brave. They managed to fight off the 50 men, and we found accounts of it in the local newspapers,” Fitzsimons said.
Robert Carney in 1923
Robert Carney was one of the first recruits into Ireland’s newly formed police force, and he had already taken part in the Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921. At the end of the Anglo-Irish war, he became the 87th recruit into the Garda Siochana, then fought alongside three other officers during the 1923 attack on the police station.
Fitzsimons said the reporting at the time treated the episode as a narrow defense. “It was generally understood by the reporters that this was a real David against Goliath situation, and when they reported it, they reported on the bravery of all four.”
County Mayo and Canada
The genealogical history was completed by the Irish Family History Centre to coincide with Carney’s visit, and it traces three of his four grandparents to Ireland. Carney’s family roots reach County Cavan and County Mayo, giving his Dublin trip a family map that runs through two parts of Ireland before crossing the Atlantic.
After the civil war incident, Robert Carney emigrated to Canada with Nora Moran. In 1925, the pair boarded the Canadian Pacific Line ship Montnairn and arrived in Quebec that July, then married in Vancouver in April 1926. In Canada, Robert Carney joined the railway police and then the RCMP.
Carney in Aughagower
Carney arrived in Dublin on Saturday for two days in Ireland before attending the G7 summit in Évian-les-Bains in France next week. On Sunday, he planned to visit Aughagower in County Mayo, attend mass in the parish church and visit the nearby cemetery.
Renée LeBlanc Proctor, Carney’s spokesperson, said he is “proud of his Irish heritage and as this represents his first official visit to Ireland, he looks forward to further strengthening relations between the two countries.” Proctor added: “This also marks the first official visit to County Mayo by a Canadian Prime Minister.”
The visit now carries two tracks at once: a prime ministerial trip with a public diplomatic schedule, and a family line that runs from a police station defense in 1923 to a cemetery visit in Aughagower. That is the story Carney brings to County Mayo, and it is the one he will carry on to France next week.
