For the past twenty five years, a group of Dingle Peninsula businesses make their way to Springfield Massachusetts for the
Big E – the Eastern States Exposition – a three week event that draws 1.7 million visitors. It is a well worn path in both directions and very much a meeting of friends.

Springfield has an amazing connection with West Kerry and the Blaskets, very much evidenced by the gathering of the city’s great and good, including many Blasket descendants, at a recent exhibition opening in Springfield Museums which celebrated the
heritage and impact of the Blasket islanders in that part of the world. The temporary exhibit was the first fruit of a Memorandum of Understanding signed last May between the OPW and the Museum. The guest of honour was the remarkable Mairéad Kearney-Shea, at 102 years young, longtime Springfield
resident and the only surviving woman born on the Great Blasket.

That the OPW and the Blasket Centre in particular would be represented at such an occasion and at the Big E is a natural expression of the deep and very much current ties of history, kinship and friendship that are so important to nurture today. My visit, which followed a similar trip by then Minister Patrick O’Donovan in September 2023, allowed me to reach out and thank places such as the John Boyle O’Reilly Club, the Sons of
Erin and the Irish Cultural Centre of New England who regularly organise tours to Ireland and see the Blasket Centre as a
highpoint of their trip.

My Springfield trip coincided with that of a Kerry County Council delegation led by Cathaoirleach Breandán Fitzgerald and Irish Consul General, Sighle Fitzgerald. This significant combined representation was noted and greatly appreciated by
our Western Massachusetts friends, at all levels.

Springfield is an intrinsic part of the Blasket story. Waves of Blasket emigrants sought a place where they could deal with the enormous dislocation of leaving their native home in a place where they could at least share their language and culture and have a supportive community network. That difficult transition and their subsequent success in their new country is the foundation of a shared and invaluable heritage that is enormously
important – on both sides – now and into the future.