Beara students discover relations in US thanks to exchange project

A SCHOOL exchange programme between Butte, Montana, and Beara Community School, resulted in some of the Montana pupils discovering they were actually related to the students in Beara.

The revelations came about as both areas continue to strengthen their mutual ties, forged many years ago, due to their mining industry links.

A recent visit by a group from Butte to Allihies formed part of the ongoing project to further links between the two areas.  

Professor Traolach O’Riordan, director of Irish Studies at the University of Montana, is a regular visitor to Beara, and with support from the Friends of Irish Studies, a non-profit community organisation in Montana, he brings groups to Beara to trace their family histories. 

Professor O’Riordan noted that most of the current tour have links to the area. ‘There’s a good number of Harringtons and O’Sullivans in our group, they’re really enjoying their visit, so much so that they don’t want to go home!’  

The tours to Beara first started in 2010 by the Friends of Irish Studies. Professor O’Riordan credits the group with supporting the teaching programme and local heritage projects. ‘The Friends of Irish Studies are based in Montana but have a large support base across the US, they support the Irish studies programe and oversaw the restoration of St Patrick’s Cemetery, in Butte and installed heritage plaques in it. Twenty years ago the only people going into that cemetery were corpses, now it’s full of visitors, the whole history of the town is there.’

The group have also been working with the Allihies Copper Mine Museum to provide more online access to the shared genealogical records of Butte and Allihies. ‘We already have a school exchange programme set up with a high school in Butte, and Beara Community School, some of the Montana pupils discovered they were actually related to the kids they were talking to in Beara. 

We plan to further develop these links and I’m looking forward to bringing more groups to Beara over the coming years.’