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The former Governor of Maryland was first and foremost the Chieftain of the O’Malley clan this weekend as he presided over his tribe, which gathered in Westport and on Clare Island for the annual O’Malley Rally.
Like president Joe Biden, Martin O’Malley has family roots in the west of Ireland and, unsurprisingly, as a one-time Democratic Party nominee for the role of US first citizen, he is firmly behind the incumbent’s bid. O’Malley argues that “the US will return to her true self” and re-elect Biden.
“Few democracies shake off a mistake like the one we made. And I’m hopeful and optimistic that Joe Biden will be elected to a second term. I don’t believe there is any chance that the president won’t run and secure the democratic nomination,” he said.
Speaking about the leading Republican contender, former president Donald Trump, he said: “Trump is a more complex story but there are several candidates running for the Republican nomination, notwithstanding Trump’s so-called grip on his base. If it were truly that strong, he wouldn’t have any challengers. He has been accused of serious crimes and misdemeanours and one of them was witnessed on January 6th [of last year] by all of us.”
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Asked about the Irish-American vote and the its evolving meaning, he said: “The Irish-American vote is certainly important but it does not act, think or vote as a block – either in a primary or a general. It’s funny how easily Irish-Americans talk about going ‘back’ to Ireland even though the vast majority of us were never born in Ireland to begin with.
“And our ancestors who left did so without any anticipation or hope of going back. But to be an American is to embrace a feeling of uprootedness – a feeling of facing tomorrow unbounded by the past. So, as one Irish-American, I derive a renewed spirit for moving forward when I’m able to recharge by going back.”
Hundreds of O’Malleys from the US, Argentina, Australia, Croatia and the UK, as well as Ireland, gathered in Westport House on Friday night for a talk by author, Anne Chambers, on their most famous forebears.
The historic house is built on the foundations of one of the castles of 16th century pirate queen, Granuaile, or Grace O’Malley. She took on the might of Queen Elizabeth I in a famous face-to-face meeting at Greenwich Castle in 1593 during a period when the reign and independence of Irish chieftains was being challenged.
Guardian Chieftain Ellen O’Malley Dunlop, whose grandfather was a native of Clare Island, had ensured the Child of Prague statue was in a prominent spot outside her second home on the island.
[ First the princess and then pirate queen as Newport becomes town of two Graces ]
“After all the sunshine, the weather was breaking and there is a great tradition here on the island that if you put this statue outside the night before a big day, it will keep the rain away and it has,” said Ellen.
She had returned to the island on a very late boat on Friday night, after a concert in Holy Trinity Church featuring excerpts from the Granuaile Suite presented by its creator, Shaun Davey, and performed by Rita Connolly, Dónal Lunny, Cora Venus Lunny and Peadar Connolly Davey.
“It was important to be there on the pier to welcome people on Saturday morning. I think of the late philosopher John Moriarty, who participated in our annual Bard Summer School here on the island. When you cross the water, to a beautiful place like this, the magic of the cosmos becomes more alive. In so many ways, you are welcoming people home. Moving from the mainland to the island, you are able to connect people to the archetypal sense of belonging,” she says.
For O’Malley Dunlop, Granuaile’s feminism is central to the ethos of this gathering, which is now 70 years old.
“We’ve been so long living under a patriarchal umbrella, it is great to sit as equals during this gathering. Nobody cares what you do or who you are,” she said.
Appropriately then, it was three women – the incoming chieftain, Nano O’Malley McMahon, tánaiste of the tribe Grace O’Malley and O’Malley Dunlop, the Guardian Chieftain – who were led by piper, Jared Denhard to the tune of Óró Sé Do Bheatha Bhaile into the Cistercian Abbey, where Granuaile is reputedly buried, for Mass on Sunday morning.
They were still recovering from Saturday’s night exertions when Martin O’Malley’s band, O’Malley’s March, played Will Ya Meet Me on Clare Island and the Green and Red of Mayo with the Saw Doctors joining them on a stage at the Sailor’s Bar. The band from Tuam had hotfooted it from Glastonbury for the occasion.