Nearly two dozen U.S. presidents have a claim to Irish heritage, including Joe Biden, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon. All of John F. Kennedy’s great-grandparents emigrated from Ireland in the late 1840s, during the Great Famine.
Several presidents have made a point of visiting Ireland to explore their family history, most recently Joe Biden, who has roots in County Louth and County Mayo, and received a warm reception when he visited in April 2023. John F. Kennedy spent four days in Ireland in June 1963 and famously said, “This is not the land of my birth but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection.”
But perhaps no visit has made such an impact on the unassuming site of presidential forbears as the 90 minutes that Barack Obama spent in Moneygall, County Offaly, the birthplace of his maternal great-great-great-grandfather Falmouth (or Fulmouth) Kearney. In 1850, the 19-year-old shoemaker left Ireland for the United States, with the rest of his immediate family either preceding or following him.
Obama’s connection to Moneygall was first revealed in 2007, thanks to the work of an Ancestry.com genealogist and Stephen Neill, a Church of Ireland rector who helped confirm the link using parish records. The idea that Obama might visit his ancestral hometown began in early 2009, with correspondence involving Henry Healy (a young Moneygall resident who discovered he was Obama’s eighth cousin), the Irish American Democrats, the U.S. Embassy, and the Irish prime minister. Arrangements were finally made for Ireland to serve as the first leg on a six-day European tour, with Moneygall being the only stop in Ireland outside of Dublin.
The village of Moneygall, located in County Offaly just over the border from County Tipperary, is home to around 300 people. The visit took place on Monday, May 23, 2011, with village residents (and two thousand others who had secured tickets after a vetting process) lining Main Street to welcome Barack and Michelle Obama. In preparation, the village had undergone a rapid facelift, with thousands of liters of donated Dulux paint sprucing up the buildings and the local government taking swift action to fix potholes and put up flower displays.
During the visit, the Obamas went inside the house where Falmouth Kearney lived before emigrating and saw an artist’s depiction of how it would have looked circa 1850. The presidential entourage stopped at Ollie Hayes Bar, one of two pubs in the village, for a round of Guinness alongside Healy and many other residents. They also purchased some local pottery and Obama-themed (or perhaps O’bama-themed) souvenirs. Before leaving Moneygall, they walked most of Main Street to meet members of the public, a handshake session thought to be the longest (in terms of distance) ever undertaken by a U.S. president and First Lady.
The Obamas and the O’bamas:
- Though more than a dozen years have passed since “the greatest day this village has ever had, ever will have” (according to Henry Healy), the events of the presidential visit feature prominently in articles, photos, and videos on the village website. Ollie Hayes Bar now features plenty of Obama memorabilia, including a bust of the former president and a large outside photo of Obama drinking Guinness.
- Many Obama-themed ventures have been undertaken in Moneygall (some more successful than others), including the Obama Cafe, an Obama-themed bike ride, and a country music festival. The most successful of these ventures is the large modern building known as Barack Obama Plaza, which features eateries, conference rooms, and a visitor’s center. Henry Healy (Obama’s distant cousin) is the plaza's operations manager.
- John F. Kennedy visited Ireland numerous times during his life, but the most notable was undoubtedly his four-day state visit in June 1963 (the first time a sitting U.S. president had visited Ireland), which included a visit to the Kennedys’ ancestral home in County Wexford. At the height of his popularity (and only five months before his assassination), Kennedy was greeted with adoring crowds wherever he went.
