A project known as the American Gaeltacht Route is being planned for the Connemara Gaeltacht.
Trans-Atlantic links between communities along the south Connemara coast are to be incorporated into this initiative.
A picture on the wall in the Emigrants and Diaspora Centre in Carna explains a lot about the connections between the Connemara Gaeltacht and America.
The photograph of President Biden’s United Government in the White House in 2020 has two members whose background is in the Connemara Gaeltacht heartland – Marty Walsh with parents from Ros Muc and Carna and Denis McDonough with grandparents from an Cheathrua Rua and Carna.
Walsh and McDonagh are but two of the Connemara Gaeltacht diaspora who have reached distinguished positions in the United States.
But the bigger picture is the story of emigration by thousands and thousands from the shores and mountains of Connemara who went west to America in the decades and centuries past.
An initiative by Údarás na Gaeltachta is now aimed at establishing Slí Ghaeltacht Mheiriceá – the American Gaeltacht route in south Connemara.
It’s the road back to the homeland.
