Leading us military figure has strong mayo links
HIS nickname is Marty. He grew up in America, spending large chunks of his boyhood summers on his grandparents’ farm at Conloon, near Castlebar.
In adult life, his name was thunderously more formal. General Martin E. Dempsey, one of whose grannies was Jennings from Conloon, was chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, one of the most powerful military figures in the world.
In addition to his military skill and wise leadership, General Dempsey (63) is best known for two other qualities - his pride in his Irish heritage and his wonderful singing voice.
At his retirement ceremony last month at Joint Base Myer-Henderson, after his son, Army Captain Chris Dempsey, read his retirement order, General Murphy took the microphone to sing that haunting melody of farewell, ‘The Parting Glass’.
It was truly an emotional and powerful rendition. Check it out yourself on YouTube.
Afterwards, as an Army band continued to play, the general walked to his waiting family, embracing a platoon of grandchildren in a loving embrace.
The retirement ceremony included heartfelt remarks from President Obama and Secretary of Defence, Carter Ash.
General Dempsey was born in March 1952. He headed the military body that advises the U.S. President and consists of the chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
He stepped down from the chairmanship on September 25.
He’s very proud of the fact that he’s '100 per cent Irish'. “It runs back to Donegal and Mayo on my mother’s side and Roscommon and Sligo on my father’s wide,” he explained in a recent interview.
As a boy he spent 'pretty much every summer' on the Jennings farm at Conloon. Older people in the area still remember his annual presence.
Both his parents in America were in full-time jobs and he was looked after much of the time by his grandmother, a Jennings from Conloon.
“She made it a point to make sure I knew I was an Irishman,” he says.
General Dempsey also had strong family links with Rannafast in the Donegal Gaeltacht.
The latter might part explain why on his great journey of life he has picked up a few Irish phrases.
Asked recently if, like President Obama, he could say: “Is feidir linn/Yes we can,” he responded “No, but I can say ‘cead mile fáilte’.”
The Irish connections are still strong in the general’s household.
His wife’s maiden name is Sullivan. She’s from Kerry.
Now that’s he’s retired, perhaps some summer soon, we’ll see demobbed General in the fields of Conloon again soon walking where he used to run.