Painting commissioned by Bruce Sprinsteen to be unveiled in Rathangan, County Kildare

It was a momentous year for Rathangan with the visit of Bruce Springsteen who came to the Kildare town in May to find out more about his ancestral roots.

To further strengthen these links, a special unveiling of a painting commissioned by the legendary rockstar will take place next week.

On Thursday, January 4 the formal unveiling of the depiction of the house at Randolph Street will take place at Rathangan Library at 7.30pm.

The painting was presented to the people of Rathangan by Glenn during his own visit to Rathangan in October. The painting is of Bruce Springsteen’s first home at 87 Randolph Street which features a large copper beech tree in foreground.

The painting is by local NJ artist Sue Winters and was commissioned by Glenn Cashion. Bruce his sister and Glenn provided the input to Sue to render an authentic version of this first home and Bruce autographed the painting.

Ann Garrity (Bruce’s great-great-grandmother) brought a sapling with her from Rathangan and planted it in Freehold, New Jersey and 100 years later Bruce was the first member of his family to climb to the top of the tree.

Mayor of Kildare Newbridge Municipal District Noel Heavey will officiate at the unveiling and all are welcome.

Discussions are also underway to consider a town twinning between Rathangan and Freehold in New Jersey.

Both towns are of a similar size, former manufacturing centres and of course sharing a connection with living legend and worldwide music phenomenon — Bruce Springsteen.

He grew up in Freehold New Jersey, which features regularly in his songs.

"We were delighted to welcome Glenn to Rathangan in October. Glenn was instrumental in making Bruce Springsteen’s visit to Rathangan happen earlier this year and this is a unique opportunity to establish a sister city relationship to strengthen our bonds of friendship and common interests in economic development, the arts, culture and tourism,” said committee member Mark Stafford.

The Boss came to the boglands ahead of his three Irish shows in the RDS last summer. The New Jersey singer/songwriter visited The Burrow pub, the community centre and also was shown where his relations may have come from in the townland of Mount Prospect.

During his visit he serenaded locals with a few lines from My Hometown ” joking at the end that he was firing the E-Street band after they joined him in song.

The Creative Performance Academy Rathangan pupils performed for the man from New Jersey in the Community Centre, while he also paid an impromtu visit to the Church of Ireland and graveyard at the top of the town.

Earlier in the day he paid a visit to the library in Newbridge where historians, who had carried out research into his family roots, made a presentation to him.

It was revealed in 2016 that Springsteen’s great-great-grandmother Anne Garrity emigrated from the Mount Prospect area of Rathangan during the Famine and settled in New Jersey in the US.

A leading US genealogist released material confirming Springsteen’s ancestry. Megan Smolenyak found Ms Garrity was 14 years of age when she left Ireland with her two sisters in 1852 for Freehold, New Jersey. On foot of Ms Smolenyak’s research, the Kildare genealogy department at Newbridge library followed up on the research and did some more digging, coming up with a new document which is on the libary website.