With all the coverage of the American election and in particular, the state of Pennsylvania, I thought it would be an appropriate time to share the story of the link between Courtmacsherry, Co. Cork and a town by the name of McSherrystown, Pennsylvania.

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Taking into consideration the events of the weekend just gone, this story also charts the path of some of the first Irish-American politicians, their connection to Courtmacsherry and remarkably, a small twist involving President-elect Joe Biden!

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McSherrystown (pop. 3,085) is located in Adams County, near the southern state border with Maryland. It is 100 miles from Philadelphia and just 12 miles from the historic town of Gettysburg - famous for the battle of the same name during the American War of Independence.

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It’s important to outline the history of Courtmacsherry itself first for context. The name Courtmacsherry is the anglicisation of “Cúirt Mac Sheafraidh” which means the Court of the son of Geoffrey. The Mac Seafraidh family were originally Norman settlers, called Hodnett.

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They changed their names to Mac Seafraidh (McSherry) as the Normans assumed much of the Irish ways of life - when they “became more Irish than the Irish themselves”. They settled at the eastern end of the village, near to where Courtmacsherry Hotel is located today.

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During the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the late 1640’s, English forces led by a Major Gookin deposed the McSherry’s of their lands and drove them from Courtmacsherry. They departed West Cork and eventually settled in Co. Antrim.

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Just under 100 years later (c.1745), a descendant of that same McSherry clan, Patrick McSherry, emigrated from Co. Antrim to Pennsylvania - which was then one of the 13 British Colonies. The USA would not become independent for another 13 years.

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In 1763, Patrick McSherry acquired some c. 150 acres of land and split it into 60 separate lots. Thus began the settlement of what has now become, McSherrystown.

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It’s clear that the people of McSherrystown knew more about Courtmacsherry when we didn’t even know they existed. The town celebrated its bicentennial anniversary in 1963. The article below was written by a direct descendant of Patrick McSherry in 1965 in a local newspaper.

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In fact, at a time without internet, they knew of our geographical location, the origins of the name, Courtmacsherry and the local history.

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Now here’s where the politics comes into the story. In that article written by Thomas McSherry, it features a large photograph of a gentleman dating from the 1800’s. His name was James McSherry and he was the son of Patrick McSherry, the town’s founder.

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James McSherry was born in 1776, the year the USA got its independence and soon after McSherrystown was founded. He was elected to the US Senate in 1813 and was the first Irish-American, Roman Catholic senator for the state of Pennsylvania.

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/BiosHistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=5211&body=S

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In traditional Irish fashion, his son William McSherry also went into politics and served in the US Senate from 1863 to 1873, during the turbulent American Civil War period.

https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/BiosHistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=5212&body=S

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So where does Joe Biden come into this? Well, he comes into this for a slightly inaccurate historical claim (for which we shall forgive him for!).

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In a speech in Erie, Pennsylvania last month, he referred to his great-grandfather Edward Francis Blewitt “as the first Irish Catholic state senator ever elected in the state of Pennsylvania”. Blewitt was elected in 1907, almost 100 years after James McSherry.

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This was of course fact-checked at the time, which reaffirmed James McSherry’s claim to that honour.

(16/) https://factcheck.thedispatch.com/p/is-joe-biden-descended-from-the-first

While we forgive Mr Biden for this small mistake, it is still a remarkable story. The story of how a small, West Cork village shares a unique historical link with a town over 3,000 miles away - and how a direct descendant of Courtmacsherry made his way to the US Senate.

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