Shinrone bid for Obama visit to mark ancestral link

A CAMPAIGN has been launched to have Shinrone in Co Offaly included in Barack Obama’s visit to Ireland in recognition of the US president’s ancestral ties to the village.

President Obama has confirmed that he will be coming to Moneygall in May to visit the village, from where his great, great, great grandfather Fulmuth Kearney emigrated in 1850.

However, Shinrone now wants a slice of the action too in light of research delving deeper into the president’s Offaly ancestry. The research, much of which has been collated by Canon Stephen Neill and the Eneclann genealogy firm, reveals that Fulmuth’s great, great grandfather, Joseph Kearney, was born in Shinrone around 1698 and died there in 1791.