Conway Mill Trust

Forty-four  years ago in  May, General Charles deGaulle visited Ireland and paid homage to Daniel O’Connell when he went to Kerry.  He wrote in the visitor’s book: “In honor of the Liberator.”  His grandmother Josephine Maillot had written a biography of O’Connell.  DeGaulle’s Irish ancestry could be traced to Anthony McCartan who made his way from Co Down to France as a boy after the disastrous Williamite Wars of 1690 and 1691.  He had this to  say this during his visit,  “There are important highlights in one’s life and I feel- perhaps because of the Irish blood running in my veins-that it was instinct that attracted me to Ireland at this time.  One returns to the place of one’s origins I’m told.”  He died eighteen months later at his home in France.