| THIRTY
residents of Arranmore will travel to America next week
to participate in a unique twinning ceremony on Beaver Island.
The small island located to the northern end of Lake Michigan
is where many Arranmore emigrants settled on their arrival
in the US more than one hundred and fifty years ago. Locate
curate Fr Martin Doohan and Arranmore's representative,
Mr Tony Gallagher will lead the delegation which flies out
on Monday morning.
|
| SOME
OF THE ISLANDERS WHO WILL MAKE THE TRIP TO THE U.S.
FOR THE TWINNING CEREMONY. INCLUDED FROM LEFT ARE, MARY
GALLAGHER, MADGE AND GERALD BOYLE, PHIL 'BAN' BOYLE
AND TONY GALLAGHER. |
Mr
Gallagher has described the twinning function as being an
historic event for people from both communities. He explained
that Charlie O'Donnell, his wife and their three young children
found their way to Beaver Island after being evicted from
their Arranmore home in 1851. The O'Donnell family initially
settled on Makinac, an island on Lake Michigan close to
the Canadian border, but they moved to Beaver after Charlie
O'Donnell went there to work on the construction of a new
lighthouse.
'A
number of Arranmore men soon followed him to Beaver where
they settled and sent home for their wives and families.
One old lady, a Mrs O'Donnell was 83 years old when she
left Arranmore. She lived to be 103,' Mr Gallagher explained.
'Members of the Mormon community first inhabited the tree
covered island. They cleared a number of small farm holdings,
but once they moved on Beaver quickly became populated with
Irish immigrants. By 1880 there were 128 Gallaghers, 114
O'Donnells and many Boyles and Wards living on Beaver,'
he said.
Despite
being four times larger than Arranmore, Beaver has only
200 inhabitants which is one third of Arranmore's population.
The Arranmore group will spend a couple of days in Chicago
on their arrival in the US and they will join with 50 relatives
and friends from the 'Windy City' to participate in the
twinning ceremony which will make sister islands.
The
group will be bused from Chicago to Charlevoix on the shores
of Lake Michigan on Friday next to take the 'Emerald Isle'
over to Beaver where they will be invited to a 'potluck
dinner' and dance in the Parish Hall. On Saturday next,
October 7th, tours of the island will be given as well as
discussions of relationships of the various families with
their Beaver Island relatives. Around 4pm the twinning ceremony
will take place near the lighthouse at the entrance to Beaver
Harbour. Main Street will be taking on a dual name 'Arranmore
Way' for this event while a street on Arranmore will become
'Beaver Island Way' to commemorate the twinning. |
