Barack O’bama traces Irish roots to Offaly

THE Clintons are not noted for inhaling, but the latest news of Barack Obama’s Irish roots must have been met with more than a sharp intake of breath.

The Irish American vote has been as crucial to any successful race for the White House as a good head on a pint and it looks as if the drinks might be on Mr Obama yet.

He was born on August 4, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama Sr and Ann Dunham. But to get to the Irish root of the family tree, it’s necessary to travel back in time to the 1700s when the largest US city was Philadelphia, with 42,000 persons.

It may sound like a fictional storyline for a Roots 2 script, but according to documents recently unearthed in Moneygall, Co Offaly, the man who would be president has well-heeled Irish shoemakers in his family history.

Canon Stephen Neill, from Cloughjordan, began delving into the senior Democrat’s past after a genealogist in Salt Lake City, Utah, told him about the possible connection with his parish.

“I would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is categorical evidence of Mr Obama’s link to this part of the world,” said the rector.

It was initially believed the would-be president’s third great grandfather Fulmuth Kearney was the only one of his family to have sailed from Ireland to New York in 1850. But the newly uncovered records show other family members had in fact emigrated to the US since the 1790s.

They also reveal that Fulmuth’s father, Joseph, was a shoemaker — a wealthy skilled trade at the time.