Last minute genealogical diplomacy
Jonathan Smyth's latest Times Past column recalls Don Lorenzo McGovern the Argentine Ambassador whose wish was to visit Cavan in search of his ancestral roots...
Don Lorenzo McGovern and his family felt completely at home with the people wherever they went in Ireland, and his daughter Lydia even made her First Holy Communion while living here. Even the Irish Press became fascinated with the ambassador’s wife’s Argentinian cooking recipes and gushed over an especially spicy sauce called ‘Chimi-Churri’, which Mrs McGovern said was usually served with lots of meat dishes that they normally barbecued in her homeland. During McGovern’s time as Argentine ambassador to Ireland he visited most counties, and yet it was a long held dream of his to see County Cavan, the home county of the McGoverns, and he almost did not get to do it.
I would like to say thank you to Oliver Brady who suggested Senor Lorenzo McGovern as a topic for this week’s column.
In 1956, Don Lorenzo visited Foxford, Co Mayo, to celebrate the centenary of the death of admiral William Brown the Irish born sailor regarded as the father of the Argentine Navy. Brown was born in Foxford, 179 years prior to the diplomat’s visit. During the event, a piece of clay from the local church yard was removed and placed in a box to be brought across the ocean to the cemetery grounds in Argentina where the Admiral’s remains were buried.
In 1957, Senor McGovern addressed the Dalkey Historical and Debating Society, telling his audience that the first Irish person to arrive in Argentina was the Reverend Thomas Field, a Limerick man who died in 1625. McGovern spoke of doctors, judges and others of Irish ancestry who became settlers. However, McGovern himself had a distinctive Breifne connection and a visit to the McGovern’s ancestral territory in Cavan was something he hoped would be on the cards during his stay in Ireland.
In 1955, Lorenzo was appointed to the Argentine mission in Dublin, and he was the first Argentinian of Irish extraction to have done so. Lorenzo McGovern’s mission was to improve trade between Ireland and Argentina. Another Argentinian person who previously featured in Times Past and later in my book, ‘Faith, Hard Work and Endurance: Selected Tales from the Cavan Diaspora’ was Peter Sheridan born in County Cavan who achieved worldwide fame as the founder of the Argentinian wool industry.
Loren zo had specific family links to Rathowen, Co Westmeath, while his ancient forebears links would have stretched back to the McGovern clan’s origins in Ballymagovern, West Cavan, from where records say that all McGovern blood originated. His parents were Michael McGovern and Bridget Tormey who were married in 1861 and lived in Rathowen, Co Westmeath, until they emigrated to Argentina. Michael and Bridget became parents to 12 children, some of whom were born in Ireland.
In August 1958, prior to his recall by the Argentinian government, Lorenzo managed to fit in a trip to the Breifne Kingdom. It was very much a last-minute decision by the authorities to take him to Cavan. Lorenzo had repeatedly emphasised that his time in Ireland would not have been complete unless he had set foot in the Breifne county and had an opportunity to walk the ground of his ancestors.
Belturbet
In August 1958, a visit was made possible. At Belturbet, Lorenzo reiterated to his Irish hosts how anxious he had been to visit Kilnavart and Ballymagovern before going back to Argentina later that September. Having eaten their fill of a magnificent meal laid on for them and the fellow guests by Mr B.C. Fay, in the Lawn Hotel, Belturbet; the happy party then set out for the land from where the McGovern chieftains hailed.
The Anglo-Celt, under the Bawnboy and Templeport news reported on the visit, stating: ‘A distinguished party arrived in the parish on Friday last in the person of Senor Lorenzo McGovern, Argentine ambassador to Ireland, and his wife Mrs McGovern.’ They were received in the company of Mr Scott McLeod, the American Ambassador, and his wife; Patrick Smith, Minister for Agriculture from Cootehill, and Mrs Smith; and Mr B.C. Fay, director, and secretary of Irish Shoe Supplies Limited, and his wife, Mrs Fay.
The group were taken on a tour of the area around Kilnavart. Next, they drove over to Ballymagovern where they were informed that an old Castle was once the place reputed to have been the seat of the noble clan and from whom the village received its majestic name. Lorenzo was a very sociable person and a few calls had been arranged to various residents after which the party continued towards Glangevlin. Another news report recalled that Lorenzo went to Belturbet on Thursday, August 22, 1958, where a fine photograph of the Senor and Senora McGovern was taken in the company of the American Ambassador, his wife and their young son Master Danny McLeod; Paddy Smith, Minister for Agriculture, and his wife; Mr B.C. Fay; Mrs Laura Van Pappelendam; Mr J.H. Barker, manager of Irish Shoe Supplies; and Mr James Boylan, director of Irish Shoe Supplies.
In September 1964, an article in the Irish Independent revealed that three ambassador positions to Ireland had remained unfilled for a considerable time. They were for Canada, Australia, and Argentina. It then became known in a Buenos Aires produced journal that Lorenzo McGovern had once again been considered for the role of Argentine ambassador but that the Irish government never responded to the Argentinian request. Instead, Lorenzo was appointed Argentina’s ambassador to Nigeria and sadly missed an opportunity of returning once again to his ancestral homeland.
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