Máire Barrett Maylor, a native of Nenagh, County Tipperary, died in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island in 1861. Her husband, a Cork-native, Samuel Maylor, travelled to Ireland to have the headstone engraved. Then in 1863, after an arduous six-month ship journey around Cape Horn, he brought the headstone back to Whidbey Island where he erected it over his wife's grave.
The Cascadia Irish Music Camp musicians will gather for a few tunes in Sunnyside Cemetery in Coupeville, about 60 miles north of Seattle, this August to pay tribute to their story before the headstone that carries an Irish language inscription in cló Gaelach, the old Irish Gaelic type.
On August 16, a few Irish tunes will be played at the headstone in honor of a woman who meant so much to her husband that he traveled to Ireland to have her headstone engraved in her native language, and also to remember the husband and family she left behind, along with all the Irish who have contributed over the years to the building of the Pacific Northwest.
Descendants of the Maylor family who still live on Whidbey Island are expected to attend and others are invited to join them and the musicians at the headstone. The 4:30 pm ceremony will be followed by dinner at nearby Camp Casey before the Irish Music Camp Concert later that evening at 7 pm.
For more information on the headstone and its history, visit IrishClub.org/headstone.
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