A
MAN and his two young daughters have sailed half-way around the world in search
of their Sligo roots.
Charles,
Daphne and Charlene Kavanagh from Mignan, French Quebec, landed in Rosses Point
at the weekend after a 15,000 mile voyage across the ocean.
The
Kavanaghs took their twenty-eight-foot single-decker yacht, the Carrick, over
storm-tossed seas to find the place from where his ancestor, Patrick Kavanagh,
sailed in 1847.
Mr
Kavanagh and his wife, Sara McDonald, sailed from Sligo Harbour on a famine ship
called the Carrick. Last week, 157 years later, Charles Kavanagh completed the
same trip-in reverse, also on the Carrick. The historic trip took ten months and
he was accompanied by his daughters Daphne(23) and Charlene(17). He plans to
return to Quebec in September.
The trip
took Charles via Greenland, Iceland the Faroe Islands, the Shetland Islands, the
Mediterranean until he reached the west coast of Ireland. Charles and his two
daughters endured mountainous seas, and icebergs on their voyage of hope.
“It was
a dream that I had to find the place from where my people first came to French
Quebec on a famine ship all those years ago. I wanted to show that you don’t
have to be rich to make those dreams come through. It was a very emotional trip
for me and my daughters and we did it in the smallest boat ever to under-take
such a trip and with a very young crew. There were times when I thought we might
not make it like when our boat capsized off the coast of Portugal and we lost
our rudder”.
But the
memory of his ancestors and where they came from was a
great inspiration to him.
“I
would like to find out more about my ancestor Patrick Kavanagh and will be
staying in Sligo until Thursday.
There are
many people of Irish descent in French Quebec and Charles’ ancestor shares the
name with one of Ireland’s greatest poets.
Anyone
who wishes to make contact with the Kavanaghs and their remarkable story can do
so at www.chez.com/carrick/
Meanwhile a yacht sank off Oyster Island at Rosses Point last Wednesday. Only the mast of the 40foot ‘Diva’ was visible after the incident. Sligo yacht club declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the ‘Diva’.