A talk by Neal Doherty - author & Mayo expert

Welcome to our first event in 2026!

 

We're delighted to welcome back Neal Doherty, lecturer and guidebook author, who last gave a talk at the library two years ago to a full house. (Hint: book your place quickly!)

 

His talk will outline Grace Kelly's origins in County Mayo in the west of Ireland - covering the mid to late 1800s, the years when her grandfather John Henry Kelly was born and later left Ireland as a young man. The talk will touch on the plight of the population due to the famine and aftermath and emigration from there, reasons which influenced Princess Grace’s grandfather's decision to leave his homeland. Achill Island, not far from Newport is where many emigrants like John Henry Kelly left from sailing on "coffin ships" destined for the USA; Neal will source from his published Achill Island Guide Book to reveal lots of stories, including the building of the railway from Westport to Achill Sound, Grace O’Malley’s Castle (The Pirate Queen), The Deserted Village and more ... including The Tuke Emigrations. The latter was an assisted migration scheme led by English Quaker philanthropist James Hack Tuke between 1882-1884, helping about 10,000 impoverished families from western Ireland (especially Connemara) emigrate to the United States and Canada to escape famine and poverty; it was funded partly by the UK government.

 

Fast forward to modern day and you will discover the Mayo that his granddaughter Princess Grace née Kelly visited in 1961, accompanying her husband Prince Rainier III on His State Visit to Ireland and the subsequent State Visit 50 years later by their son HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2011, when he visited the ruins of the Kelly homestead in county Mayo. Other famous diaspora who left the west of Ireland may also pop up!