Posted on 01/19/2009 1:14:19 PM PST by BGHater
Barack Obama’s ancestral Irish homestead could be transformed into a museum or heritage centre to welcome the President-elect to Ireland should he visit in the future.
As preparations get under way in Washington DC for the momentous inauguration this week, the tiny village of Moneygall, Co Offaly is considering ways to honour the historic connection.
Records uncovered in 2007 found the President-elect’s fourth great grandfather was a shoemaker in the midlands village whose son Fulmuth Kearney left for the US in the 1850s.
The land — known in the area as Kearney’s Gardens — is owned by Offaly County Council which had been intending to sell the strip to develop housing.
But the authority is now holding on to it after a local councillor said its momentous history should be officially recognised.
“I asked Offaly County Council to withdraw that land off the market and look at the possibility of putting up some sort of heritage centre, museum, some sort of monument,” Fianna Fail’s Peter Ormond said.
“I’d like to see something there within the next couple of years, in time for if Obama does ever decide to come to Ireland.”
Moneygall was put on the map after a local Church of Ireland vicar uncovered records in the home of an elderly parishioner which tied the |political leader to the village.
Locals, who have grasped hold of the connection with enthusiasm, threw a celebration party on news of Obama’s victory last November and there are plans for another to mark inauguration night.
Nothing remains of the Kearney homestead and surrounding land, which ironically once belonged to the family of Obama’s distant cousin, Henry Healy. They were forced to give it up 30 years ago after the local authority compulsorily purchased it for new housing, but just four properties were built on the field. Backing plans for the site to be developed into a heritage centre, Mr Healy also suggested a children’s activity park given Obama’s background in community work.
“As well as a heritage centre, I think there’s plenty of space for a playground for children which is a badly needed resource in the area, which could be named after him.”
Mr Healy, along with Canon Stephen Neill, the rector who discovered the Moneygall/Obama link, was due to travel to Washington DC for an inauguration party organised by the Irish/American Democrats.
The Corrigan Brothers who released the song There’s no one as Irish as Barack Obama will also travel to perform at the inauguration. And how does he feel to have such a famous relative?
“In May 2007, the first question I asked was who is Barack Obama?,” Mr Healy said.
“He was an unknown in the world stage, but I’m only too delighted to have some link to him now.”
Meanwhile Ireland’s top envoy in the US is to represent the Government at Mr Obama’s inauguration. Irish Ambassador Michael Collins will join other international guests at the ceremony on Tuesday.
Were Kennedy's, Clinton's and of course Ronaldus Magnus’s ancestral Irish homesteads transformed into “museums” or “heritage centres”?
This bullsh^t is bordering on a
pedophillic-obsessive-addictive type of lusting.
Maybe some enterprising business person can market an Obama sex doll or phallus to satisfy some of the worldwide cult.
Think I am going to throw up with all this crap! All of a sudden the second black President declares his Irish ancestry that he ignored during the election.
Exactly... this one really came out of left field.
It's gonna be a l-o-n-g four years, unfortunately...
Thanks for the ping!
I have to look this up
all I can say, is, My GOD, we might be cousins!
knackers I’d reckon....the Obama clan of Ulster
NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!
I am of Ulster.
Do not curse my ancestry with ‘that one’.
Pick another of the fifths.
The land of my ancestors has really gone off the deep end in modern times.
It's the land of my ancestors as well. Last time I was there (1997), there was a "heritage center" on nearly every corner in every town (that we visited, anyway, and we went all over Ireland). Definitely "heritage center overkill".
Sorry, I have no idea what religion Stanley Ann Dunham was brought up with by her parents...
Quite a coincidence: We were there in 1996. Probably not overkill to have so many heritage centers, as tourism is big there including so many from America who are of Irish descent and want to glimpse the old ancestral sod.
From the many things I have read about their politics and their declining church attendance, I am definitely disappointed in the Irish and identify much less with them than I did in my youth.
WEll thank God My Irish roots are in Donegal..decended from Red Hugh!
“-—we might be cousins!”
You too!!!!!! oh my, then we might be, also!!!
Just for the sake of those reading here who may not understand the term "Black Irish", it referred to fair-skinned white Irish people with blue eyes and black or dark brown hair, as distinct from the stereotype of the freckle-faced redhead or strawberry blonde.
According to Wikipedia, a study conducted in the 1940s of Irish ethnography revealed that "'in the proportion of pure light eyes', data shows that 'Ireland competes successfully with the blondest regions of Scandinavia,' as approximately 42% of the Irish population have blue eyes. Another 30% have been found to possess light-mixed eyes and 'less than 1 half of 1% have pure brown." [emphasis mine]
Dang, I forgot he had an Irish ancestry, I only remembered the Kenyan one...but I thought he was ashamed of his Irish side.
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