In 1847 the Carricks of Whitehaven sinks off the coast of the Gaspé Peninsula. The ship was carrying 187 Irish passengers and… a violin marked “Stradivarius”. Today, the bones of lost children come to light, appearing like ghosts on the Cap-des-Rosiers Beach – but to whom
do they belong?
Charles Kavanagh, whose ancestors were among the few survivors of the
shipwreck, is on a quest to uncover his origins. He only recently learned
why he had never found any trace of his ancestors in the Carricks’ records: the name Kavanagh was previously Kaveney.
With the help of DNA testing of the recovered bones, a voyage retracing the path of his Irish ancestors, and research into the origins of the strange violin, Charles asks: What is in a name? How does it influence our
identity? What is left of the legacy of our Irish ancestors in Quebec?
This film looks at the identity of the Quebec people, it journeys from a
name of an immigrant family, to the identity of deceased children, or the
origin …of a violin.
TX: Monday 24th August, 11:15 PM on RTÉ One