Watch: William Clay Ford Jr hails hugely meaningful return to ancestral home

The great grandson of Henry Ford has hailed as "hugely meaningful" a visit by some of his family back to the ancestral home of the industrialist in Ballinascarty in West Cork.

William Clay Ford Jr, executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, visited the village near Clonakilty this morning alongside his wife, Lisa and their sons William and Nicholas, receiving a warm welcome from hundreds of locals and visitors on their first return to the area since 2011.

The group were greeted not just by members of the local Henry Ford Committee, which has sought to preserve the history of the original Ford family which departed for America in 1847 and its links to Ballinscarty, but also by visitors and vintage motor enthusiasts, meaning a fleet of classic cars pitched up at the crossroads village in anticipation of the family's arrival.