Gathering gets started in Ardrahan

Communities around the country are preparing for The Gathering 2013 and one South Galway village is off to a great start. Ardrahan is expecting 19 members of one family from the United States to descend on it over the summer but organisers are hoping to attract even more of the village’s diaspora home for its Gathering events in June.
A group of local people have put together a programme for the weekend of June 21 including a welcoming concert, golf outing, parish tour and a GAA event. The weekend culminates in the annual vintage day in Labane on Sunday, June 23.
“The event is to be a celebration of all that is good about the local community and anyone with a connection with the parish is invited to attend. in fact, a call has been put out to all in the parish to reach out to family and friends both near and far inviting them to return to Ardrahan for an event it is hoped will live long in the memory,” explained Rory O’Shaughnessy, local Ireland Reaching Out Volunteer.
Plans to host a Gathering in the parish were set in place with the news that up to 19 members of the extended Kelly/Watt Clan are to travel from the United States to Ardrahan in June.
“The Kelly reunion resulted from a query left by Maureen Watt from Philadelphia on the Ardrahan Ireland Reaching Out website. Maureen had left the message seeking any information on the family of her great-grandmother, Ellen Kelly, born in Ardrahan North in the early 1870s.
“She specifically looked for any information on where the family homestead was located, where the family burial place may have been and if there was any possible relatives still living locally,” explained Rory, who picked up the email.
He responded to the query with some good news and some bad. Rory was able to inform Maureen after a little research that the Kelly homestead was located right in the middle of Ardrahan Village next to Tarpey’s pub but the house unfortunately had been demolished a mere month before the message had been left on the website.
Rory, however, had taken a photo of the house before its demolition that he was able to send to Maureen.
“The house was a well-known local landmark being the last original thatch house in the village and had been knocked down to allow for the construction of a new two-storey house,” he explained.
Better news was to come though, as Rory was also able to reconnect Maureen and her family with a living relative, Michael Kelly from Cregclare.
“Michael was delighted to reestablish the family connection and a relationship developed between families on both sides of the Atlantic through email and Skype. Two members of Maureen’s family visited the parish last August and it is now planned that 19 members of the Kelly/Watt family will travel to Ireland from the States for the June Reunion.
“The planned Kelly/Watt reunion has created quite a bit of interest both here and abroad. Michael was interviewed recently on Canadian Radio and the reconnection has been featured on Al Jazeera TV as part of a news piece on the Gathering Ireland 2013,” Rory outlined.
While the Kelly/Watt reunion will play a big part of the Gathering locally, Rory is quick to point out that the Gathering is open to all who have links with Ardrahan and “we hope that other families in the parish will use the weekend as an opportunity to host their own reunions and invite as many people home as possible to Ardrahan as part of the Gathering Ireland 2013”.
A full programme of events will be available locally in the coming weeks and anyone looking for details on the Ardrahan Gathering can view details on the Gathering Website, Facebook or can call Rory on 087 4065646.