‘We hope he gets home for the annual graveyard mass’ – the proud son of Irish-speaking parents who is now at the heart of UK government

Now the community is hopeful that the man who holds the most senior ministry after Labour leader Keir Starmer, will return for the parish’s annual graveyard mass – as he has done every year.

“We are over the moon,” said Mr McFadden’s cousin, Eileen McFadden, who works in An Fál Carrach’s Shamrock Bar.

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“I’ve known him since he was a really teeny baby, as he spent six weeks of every summer over here,” she said.

“We’re hoping he’ll be back here next month for the mass on August 4.”

Her celebrated cousin not only directed Labour ’s general election campaign, but was previously a political director to former Labour prime minister Tony Blair and worked with his successor, Gordon Brown.

First elected as MP for Wolverhampton South East in May 2005, Mr McFadden (59) was handed the most senior ministerial post in the UK cabinet office after the prime minister.

His late parents, Annie and Jimmy McFadden, were native Irish speakers. The couple left Dunmore, near An Fál Carrach, for Glasgow in the 1950s and reared a family of seven children.

Both are buried in An Fál Carrach, and Mr McFadden and his siblings have stood by their grave during Domhnach na Reilige (Graveyard Sunday) Mass in the parish every August.

Mr McFadden follows Celtic and the Donegal GAA football team, according to former Irish Language Commissioner Seán Ó Cuirreáin, who is also from that part of north-west Donegal and is a member of the Council of State.

Meenderry when he found that both Mr McFadden’s parents had been pupils there.

“I subsequently met him and his late mother Annie at the annual graveyard mass, and he struck me as being very much a down-to-earth person although he was, even then, a senior player in British politics working with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown,” said Mr Ó Cuirreáin.

“I am delighted to see him now, the son of Irish-speaking parents from the Donegal Gaeltacht, at the very heart of power in the British government.”

Mr Blair has described Mr McFadden’s role as “invaluable” in helping him to keep in touch with the Labour Party during his time in office.

He described him as “quietly effective” when interviewed for a documentary entitled The Right Honourable Pat Jimmy Den Rua MP, which was made by Nuacht TG4 editor Breandán Delap over 10 years ago.

Mr Delap describes Mr McFadden as “a tireless worker for the people of Wolverhampton and particularly for the Sikh community there”, and says he was “taken aback by his honesty” when filming at one of his clinics (or surgeries, as they are known in Britain).

“One of his constituents from India wanted to get residency, and while he was very helpful with her application, he was also very forthright about how slim her chances were,” said Mr Delap.

Mr McFadden has often spoken about how Ireland is a “big part” of his make-up, and in his maiden speech in the House of Commons he recounted how both his parents had to emigrate from Ireland.

In 2022, he expressed his condolences in the UK parliament for the 10 people killed in the filling station explosion in Creeslough.

Local historian John Connaghan said the parish was very proud of Mr McFadden’s success.

Mr Connaghan said it was particularly significant as Fál Carrach and surrounding areas had been the focus of a UK parliament select committee commission of inquiry in 1858.

The report on “destitution in Donegal” related to the inability of small farmers to pay their rents after the Great Famine.

“When the Land League got into its stride, there were widespread evictions in this area, and a local priest, coincidentally named Fr McFadden, organised a campaign against the landlords,” said Mr Connaghan.

He added that he had not so far found any links between the rebel priest and the “Right Honourable Pat Jimmy Den Rua”, although both men certainly appear to be cut from the same political activist cloth.