Riverdance, midges and Bono to feature in girls’ trip review

There is a rule in the Obama family that whenever Sasha, 12, and Malia, 14, travel, they have to write an assignment about their adventures.

This is not for the purpose of their school or education, but so they’ll have recorded the memories of their childhood days spent during their father Barack’s two terms as US president.

In years to come, when they look back on these two days, what moments or memories will be contained in their accounts of their short holiday in Ireland?

Crowds are gathering at Finnegan's in Dalkey.US First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters are due here for lunch. pic.twitter.com/irOH9pPEmC

— Sinéad Hussey (@SineadHus) June 18, 2013

Will it be the precious few moments spent skimming stones across the smooth lake of Glendalough, sending ripples through the clear reflection of the bright blue sky and forested mountains?

Will it be the unrelenting midges that almost got the better of their Secret Service watchmen, as the family crossed the wooden bridge from the sixth-century monastic settlement to a wishing stone which their mother, Michelle, said “gives great powers”?

Or perhaps they will have written about the hawthorn tree with its white flowers which their guide told them cannot be brought into Irish households because — having been used in the crown of thorns — it’s believed to bring bad luck.

They might write about the shamrock they spotted — the same plant that is brought to their father at the White House in a bowl every St Patrick’s Day — but still attached to its stem in the Wicklow soil.

Or maybe they’ll have recounted the small seaside village of Dalkey in South Dublin which came to a good-humoured standstill when they were delivered to Finnegan’s Pub for a hearty meal of fish and chips in the company of Bono and his teenage sons.

Maybe the girls will write about the performance of Riverdance in the Gaeity Theatre on Monday night where they were joined by hundreds of excited Irish school children, told by the first lady to work hard and “dream big”.

Or the visit to the Long Room of the Trinity College Library earlier that day.

#Bono & #FLOTUS do lunch at #Irish pub. Bono just arrived. More @KNX1070 (photo credit: @davekenny @irishexaminer) pic.twitter.com/uQDt3afxrP

— Jayson Campadonia (@RadioNewsNerd) June 18, 2013

As they travel to Germany and back to Washington DC, they will have with them not just their certificates of Irish heritage, but all these fond memories of a place their mother called “home”.

And in their assignments recalling the plants, the smells, the sights and the sounds of the welcoming land of their very distant ancestors, Sasha and Malia Obama will also have the hearts of the Irish people which they stole with their character, craic, and charm.