Obama explores his roots in Ireland
Source: Agencies |
May 24, 2011, Tuesday
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US President Barack Obama paid a joyful visit yesterday to the small Irish village where his great-great-great grandfather once lived and worked as a shoemaker, an improbable and memorable pilgrimage for America's first black president into his Irish past.
Along with first lady Michelle Obama, the president walked the thronged Main Street of quaint Moneygall, where his ancestor on his Kansas-born mother's side, Falmouth Kearney, lived until leaving for the United States in 1850 at the height of Ireland's Great Famine. Obama's roots in the town were discovered during the 2008 presidential campaign.
The president raised a pint of Guinness in Ollie's Bar, held up a baby and shook innumerable hands. He took a look at Kearney's baptism records - the documents that established his connection to the town - and even got to meet, hug and drink with a distant family member: Henry Healy, a 26-year-old accountant for a plumbing firm.
For the president, it was a quick detour from Dublin on day one of a six-day, four-country European tour that will involve working with allies on knotty problems of war, peace and economic growth.
Yesterday, though, was about a colorful journey into a part of the president's ancestry he hasn't fully explored, and that many Americans might not even know about.
Obama sought to change that as he endeared himself to the Irish populace, and in turn perhaps to millions of Irish American voters in the US. "For the United States, Ireland carries a blood link with us," Obama told Ireland's prime minister, Enda Kenny, in Dublin, before setting out by helicopter for the 90-mile journey southwest to Moneygall.
Once there he set out to prove that like so many others, he has a little bit of Irish in him. The first couple spent extended time greeting Moneygall residents who had withstood soaking rain earlier to see them.
The thrilled villagers responded by waving American and Irish flags and breaking into periodic cries of "Obama! Obama!" Both of the Obamas stretched to shake seemingly every hand they could reach.
"Absolutely fabulous," said Ann McCormack, a 39-year-old housewife said after shaking Obama's hand. She said the town will be talking about this day forever. "We'll take it to our grave," she said.
Residents in the village of about 350 had been eagerly anticipating Obama's arrival.
Along with first lady Michelle Obama, the president walked the thronged Main Street of quaint Moneygall, where his ancestor on his Kansas-born mother's side, Falmouth Kearney, lived until leaving for the United States in 1850 at the height of Ireland's Great Famine. Obama's roots in the town were discovered during the 2008 presidential campaign.
The president raised a pint of Guinness in Ollie's Bar, held up a baby and shook innumerable hands. He took a look at Kearney's baptism records - the documents that established his connection to the town - and even got to meet, hug and drink with a distant family member: Henry Healy, a 26-year-old accountant for a plumbing firm.
For the president, it was a quick detour from Dublin on day one of a six-day, four-country European tour that will involve working with allies on knotty problems of war, peace and economic growth.
Yesterday, though, was about a colorful journey into a part of the president's ancestry he hasn't fully explored, and that many Americans might not even know about.
Obama sought to change that as he endeared himself to the Irish populace, and in turn perhaps to millions of Irish American voters in the US. "For the United States, Ireland carries a blood link with us," Obama told Ireland's prime minister, Enda Kenny, in Dublin, before setting out by helicopter for the 90-mile journey southwest to Moneygall.
Once there he set out to prove that like so many others, he has a little bit of Irish in him. The first couple spent extended time greeting Moneygall residents who had withstood soaking rain earlier to see them.
The thrilled villagers responded by waving American and Irish flags and breaking into periodic cries of "Obama! Obama!" Both of the Obamas stretched to shake seemingly every hand they could reach.
"Absolutely fabulous," said Ann McCormack, a 39-year-old housewife said after shaking Obama's hand. She said the town will be talking about this day forever. "We'll take it to our grave," she said.
Residents in the village of about 350 had been eagerly anticipating Obama's arrival.
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