Canadian Prime Minister acknowledges Kilkenny man during Irish visit
Tadhg O’Brennan, originally from County Kilkenny emigrated to Canada in the 1600s
During his recent to Ireland, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney paid tribute to a Kilkenny man who made the first official journey from Ireland to Canada in 1661, landing in Québec.
Born around 1632, it appears that Tadgh was from a parish near Castlecomer.
In a thoroughly researched paper published in 2002, Louis Aubry, one of his descendants, suggested that his father was Connor O’Brennan who held lands in Kilkenny.
He further speculates that ‘Diasonnay’, the phonetic record of Tadhg’s birthplace recorded on his marriage certificate, is probably a parish called Dysert near the river Dinin, a tributary of the Nore River just north of Kilkenny City.
There had been other Irish who had set foot in Canada before him, such as the fishermen who had settled in Newfoundland but they were not officially documented.
“Good to see the ties are still strong,” Prime Minister Carney commented.