Galway Bay fm newsroom - The story of how Joseph Brennan, the son of emigrants from Carna in Connemara, became a State Governor and a significant figure in American politics will be the subject of a video presentation and talk in Carna this evening.
Joseph Brennan also has the distinction of having appointed Senator George Mitchell, the former American Peace Envoy in Northern Ireland, to the United States Senate.
The Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland twenty years ago with Senator George Mitchell from the United States a key figure.
But had it not been for a son of emigrants from Carna in Connemara George Mitchell might never have attainted high status in American politics.
Joseph Brennan was the son of emigrants from the parish of Carna who went to Portland in the State of Maine in the early years of the last century.
Joseph Brennan, became Governor of Maine and in that capacity he had the power to fill a vacancy in the Senate in Washtington in 1980.
He choose George Mitchell.
Joseph Brennan was also a United States Congressman and a member of the Federal Maritime Commission.
Now in his eighties, he lives in Portland, Maine.
History Professor, Michael Connolly from Maine will tonight at 7.30 present a film documentary entitled “Building Bridges: Connections between Joseph Brennan and George Mitchell” in the Emigrants Commemorative Centre in Carna -the area from which Joseph Brennan's parents emigrated.
