[caption id="attachment_71394" align="alignright" width="350" caption="Terry Golway."]
Hugh Carey, the late governor of New York, will be discussed and honored at a conference from July 12-16 near his ancestral village in the west of Ireland.
A plaque will be unveiled at Milltown Heritage Park close
to Tuam, Co. Galway, as part of “The Irish-American Link: People, Places and Culture.”
Scholar and genealogist Anne Rodda will detail his family roots at a session earlier in the afternoon of July 15, while that morning the Irish Echo and Kean University’s Terry Golway will give a lecture entitled “From Ireland to Albany: Governor Hugh Carey’s Irish-American Journey.”
Carey isn’t the only American figure with Milltown roots who’ll
be mentioned at the event based
at the Ard Rí House Hotel in Tuam. Tim Collins of the National University of Ireland, Galway,
will speak on “Major Dick Dowling, Hero of Confederate Texas.” Dowling, who was born in Milltown and emigrated to America with
his family at age 8, was the South’s victorious commander at the
Second Battle of Sabine Pass in
1863 and a leading businessman
in Houston.
Meanwhile, Castlehacket,
Tuam, native Col. Patrick Kelly,
who was killed leading the
North’s Irish Brigade in 1864,
will be the subject of a lecture
given by Brendan Higgins, a NUI, Galway, researcher and a member
of the Old Tuam Society, which is hosting the conference.
Prof. Christine Kinealy of Drew University in New Jersey, who initially suggested the Tuam conference, is amongst those traveling from America to speak.
In all, there will be 28 lectures over the three weekend days,
while the Thursday and the Monday will be given over to full-day heritage tours of West and East Galway. For more details and information about booking, go to www.irishamericanlink.com.
