Going Home

We just learned that some family members will be traveling to Ireland this spring! My first thought was of course excitement for them. Swift on its heels came: “Clifden, Connemara, County Galway!” We know that many of the branches of our family tree stretch back to Ireland - for eight surnames we know their place of birth was Ireland. But for only one person, Winifred, my Great Great Grandmother, do we know that she was born in the town of Clifden. We also know that her mother, Margaret, my Great Great Great Grandmother, was born in the larger environs of Connemara. But so far, for all my other Irish ancestors, all we know is they were born in “Ireland”.

It is also true that when Kate, a member of the next generation, travels to Ireland in a couple of months, she will be the first member of our immediate family ever to return. For five generations, not since Margaret and Winifred came over, none of us have gone home to Ireland. Because we know what patch of earth one of our loved ones, Winifred, sprang from, not just the vastness of “Ireland”, Clifden is the place with a name to which we resonate. Likewise, on my father’s side, we know that my Great Grandparents were born in Glasgow, Scotland. So it is to Glasgow, more than all of Scotland, to which we relate.

It may seem odd to call it “going home”. But I grew up as “Irish American’; as “Irish Catholic”. Even the Scottish branches of the family most likely trace their roots back across the Irish Sea and into Ireland. So knowing how deep and broad our connection is to Ireland, wherever Kate visits, she will be going home for all of us. Especially for Margaret, Winifred, James, Delia, Catharine, Patrick, Bridget and Thomas who were all born in Ireland; who made that great leap of faith to journey to America and who are all buried here.