In Gortnahoe, Co. Tipperary, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was welcomed by a group of parishioners led by a distant relative of his, Anna Hayden, who, like the Mayor, is a descendant of the Carneys of Gortnahoe. The Mayor's great-great-grandparents lived in Gortnahoe until 1852 when they emigrated to the US.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels addresses the members of the Gortnahoe Community Council and Gortnahoe schoolchildren who had gathered to greet him. On left is Richard Dunne, Chair of the local Community Council, and Anna Hayden, a distant cousin of the Mayor's.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was surrounded by children from Gortnahoe National School in Co. Tipperary, when he visited the area that his great-great-grandparents left in 1852.
Sharon Nickels, the Mayor’s wife, was presented with a bouquet of flowers by one of the schoolchildren.
Cary Nickels, daughter of the Seattle Mayor, reacts after being presented with a hurley and hurling ball by children at Gortnahoe National School in Co. Tipperary.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is shown the Gortnahoe, Co. Tipperary, Parish Baptismal Register from the 1850s by Gortnahoe Parish Priest Fr. John O’Rourke. The register lists the names of some of the Mayor's ancestors.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels signs the Visitors Book at Thurles Town Hall, watched by Thurles Mayor Michael Grogan. The Mayor's great-great-grandparents were born in Thurles.
Pictured at the Mayor of Seattle’s visit to Thurles Cathedral, from left, Fr. Martin Hayes, Archbishop Dermot Clifford, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, and Thurles Mayor Michael Grogan, examining the Thurles Cathedral Baptismal Register which lists the Baptism of Mayor Nickels’ great-great-grandfather in 1822.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is shown the Poorhouse register at the Famine Museum in Thurles by Museum Curator George Willoughby.
Galway Visit Photos.
