The Carey Clan to join Kilkenny’s St Patrick’s Festival Parade

The Carey Clan will join Kilkenny’s St Patrick’s Festival Parade this year along with Grand Marshal Richie Power, local community groups, American bands, sporting and dance troupes, artistic and colourful floats and a special guest appearance by Stephen Mulrooney.

Consisting of 15 extended family members and spanning 3 generations, The Carey Clan are travelling to Kilkenny this month from the US in the hope of uncovering insights into their Irish heritage which so far have proved elusive. 

Individual members of the clan have visited these shores before, but ran into roadblocks in their research, centred largely on the dearth of documentation caused by the 1922 fire at the Dublin Four Courts which sparked the civil war.

Now the family have come together for a very special visit to their ancestral homeland, which they hope will lead to interactions with Kilkenny locals who may be able to help flesh out their family tree, with memories, anecdotes and family links not found in the official record books.

The Carey clan members, who hail variously from Kentucky, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania, can trace their roots to Martin Joseph Carey Sr. who emigrated to America around 1866 and settled in Louisville, Kentucky.  Some members also have roots in Doyle and Sheridan families from other locations in Ireland.

The Carey clan are now planning to march in the Kilkenny St Patrick’s Day Parade - mainly to reach out to any onlookers who may be able to help them fill the gaps in their genealogy research - but also to have a unique and memorable experience that they can pass down to their future generations, to preserve and strengthen their treasured Irish connection.