The following excerpt is from an interesting article posted to the July 23, 2016 edition of IrishCentral.com:
…Kaine certainly feels Ireland in his heart. During his acceptance speech for The American Ireland Fund Leadership Award, he talked about his family’s 2006 trip to Ireland, where they found the ruins of his great-grandfather’s cottage in Killashee Parish, in Longford…
He visited Ireland during his first year as governor of Virginia, with his wife Anne and three children. They visited the ruins of the home of his great-grandfather, PJ Farrell who later emigrated to Kansas, where he became a successful farmer.
Kaine told the dinner about how his children were unhappy with leaving “cool” Dublin to search for his family roots in County Longford.
“As we drove to Longford, which isn’t exactly the tourist zone, they continued to complain,” he said.
He also has Kilkenny root, which makes him the exception, as most Irish roots go back to the traditional Irish western seaboard counties like Mayo, Galway, and Kerry.
