PROLOGUE 
     
     St. Malachy’s Church, Kinkora, Prince Edward Island, July 30, 2010. 
     
    
   
   
    
     This historic church, designed by William Critchlow Harris, was named 
     
     after the respected Irish Archbishop of Armagh. He was canonized 
     
    

    
     by Pope Clement III in 1199, becoming the first saint from Ireland. 
     
     Some say the church was named after Rev. Malachy Reynolds, who was 
     
     pastor at the time the original church was built, and it may also have be 
     
     named in his recognition. It was described at the time of its opening as, 
     
     “commanding a magnificent view of a surprisingly beautiful section of 
     
     the Province, of which it is the landmark on all sides...it is certainly a gem 
     
     among Island churches...” The church was built at a cost of $20,000 and 
     
     the cornerstone was laid by Bishop James Charles MacDonald on Sunday, 
     
     August 12, 1900. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Over the years since it was built, in addition to regular masses, and as 
     
    

    
     a place where people came to pray and worship, St. Malachy’s Church 
     
    

    
     has been witness to weddings, funerals, baptisms, ordinations, prayers, 
     
     celebrations, confirmations, confessions and communions. On this 
     
     special day in July 2010 it is witness to another kind of event. The 
     
     descendants of John and Angelina Keefe attended a special mass as part 
     
     of the Keefe family reunion. The event also marked the 175th anniversary 
     
     of the arrival of the first Keefe family which emigrated to Kinkora from 
     
     County Cork, Ireland in 1835. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Just as the Irish diaspora scattered the sons and daughters of the Emerald 
     
     Isle to the four corners of the earth, the Keefe family also eventually 
     
     scattered throughout North America. The reunion would bring them 
     
     back together again on this weekend. There were four generations seated 
     
     side by side in the church, exchanging greetings and, at one point, 
     
     watching with bemusement a youngster who wandered down the aisle to 
     
     explore the altar. There was a large contingent from Philadelphia, where 
     
     John, the second of the 16 children born to John and Angelina, emigrated 
     
     in 1925. Others came from as far away as Vancouver, from many parts 
     
     of the United States and from as close as the original ancestral home in 
     
     Kinkora, just down the road from the church. The original family of 16