Page 206 - WDT MAGAZINE IRELAND ISSUE WINTER 2018

Story & Photography By Brian E. Clark
FAMILY ROOTS IN

COUNTY KERRY

In his heart of hearts, my Iowa-born father
was an Irishman. A Kerryman, to be specific.

hich is why when he died almost 20 years ago in Tralee, Ire-
land, my mother, Ruth, left half his cremated remains behind.
WThe other half were buried in a family plot in Cedar County,
Iowa, where he toiled as a weekly newspaper editor for more than 50
years.
What I’d like to think of as his Irish ashes were scattered, after a pub-
based wake to celebrate his nearly eight decades on earth - in Brandon
Bay on the north side of the breath-takingly beautiful Dingle Peninsula.
Those waters are just a literal hop and a skip from the modest, two-bed-
room cottage my parents bought in the tiny village of Fahamore in the
early 1970s. They lived there for more than 30 summers and introduced
me and my four siblings and even some of our offspring to the south-
west corner of the Emerald Isle.
My father’s last name, like mine, was Clark. But his mother was a Mc-
Carty, which the genealogy books say is the surname of a clan that once
controlled parts of County Kerry and County Cork. So it was perhaps
fitting that he and my mother should end up becoming enamored with
Kerry.
My father spent part of World War II in England, preparing for the inva-
sion of Europe, after participating in battles in North Africa and Italy. And
I think he might have begun his long fascination with Ireland during his
time in London. But it wasn’t until he subscribed to the weekly newspa-
per in Tralee, called “The Kerryman,” and began a correspondence and
friendship with Tony Meade, an editor there, that the strong connection
blossomed.

206 WDT MAGAZINE WINTER 2018