Okay, am I the only one marveled and confused by President Obama’s ancestry? I mean, so much is made of his mysterious Kenyan side (Gee, I wonder why?), that it’s easy to forget that his mother was white and of Irish descent, and today he visited the town of Moneygall, which is where his maternal great-great-great grandfather hailed from.
President Obama paid a joyful visit Monday 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. His ancestor on his Kansas-born mother’s side, Falmouth Kearney, lived in the town 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.
Here’s video of Obama riffing on his past Guinness drinking experiences and leading the assembled crowd in a toast at a pretty raucous Ollie’s Bar in Moneygall…