Moneygall needs Obama to return — as the president
On May 23 last year, the US president and his wife Michelle spent a few hours in the village during a whirlwind visit to Ireland.
An amateur genealogist had traced Obama’s ancestors back to Moneygall, where his great-great-great-great grandfather was a shoe-maker in the 19th century.
The legacy of the visit is clear: American flags still fly from brightly painted poles all along the main street. The village remains spotless. In the run up to the visit, every surface was painted and footpaths scrubbed.
The ancestral house is the main — perhaps only — attraction in the village, located in Co Offaly.
In the local shop, a stack of Obama’s autobiographies sit messily beside copies of There’s no-one as Irish as Barack Obama, a CD released by a local artist.
Busloads of tourists regularly make their way there to take photos or to mimic the president by drinking a pint of Guinness in Ollie Hayes’s pub.
Villagers will gather in the pub to watch the overnight election coverage hoping one of their own will be once again be voted into the White House.
Though the Obama visit has boosted trade, it has also done something else for Moneygall. Henry Healy, the president’s distant cousin who led the Obamas on their tour of the village, and who visited them in Washington for St Patrick’s Day this year, said it had renewed community spirit.
“This isn’t about business; it’s about community. A lot of that community spirit would have been lost during the Celtic Tiger years,” he said. “It gave the place a big lift.
“We want Obama to stay in the White House and maybe come back again if he gets re-elected.”
Local businesswoman Annette Costello, who runs the ‘Obama Cafe’, was sweeping up inside after a group of Spanish visitors came through.
A life-size cardboard cut-out of the president smiles down from the wall. A poster of Obama’s ‘Yes We Can’ 2008 campaign slogan hangs behind the sandwich counter.
“We would have had none of this if the president hadn’t visited,” Ms Costello said. “The visit put us back on the map again. It’s like a dream; it’s just fantastic.”
One of the striking things about the village is how grateful people are for the visit. Everyone, it seems, has an Obama-related story to tell.
Julia Hayes, one of the great characters of Moneygall, has run a pub for 65 of her 82 years. “There’s never a want of people in Moneygall since, that’s for sure,” she said.
Like most people in the village, conversation quickly turns to the events surrounding the visit. “The secret service arrived in on top of us one evening wanting to carry out checks with sniffer dogs before himself [Obama] arrived and this particular, really serious, agent wanted to check out the bedrooms.
“He ordered me to go up the stairs first. Well, I told him: ‘I will bloody not; I’m wearing a skirt — you go up first.’ And he did,” she joked.
Across the road in Ollie Hayes’s pub, where Obama sampled a Guinness, television coverage of the visit plays on a loop on a big screen. Little US flags are hung across the bar.
Business has been strong since, with opening hours extended and food added to service. “What has surprised me is the amount of Irish people who have come down here to see the place — that’s been a huge boost,” Mr Hayes said.
International tourists have turned up, along with Americans of both the Republican and Democratic persuasion. “Either they love Obama or, well, let’s just put it kindly and say they won’t be voting for him any time soon. But they still come in and see what it’s all about,” he said.
Meanwhile, 100km away in Graignamanagh, there is a more muted anticipation of today’s election, despite strong links to one of the key players. The great- great-grandparents of Paul Ryan, Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s running mate, hailed from the area. “There’s not much happening about it,” said local politician Tommy Prendergast.
“There’s a bit of talk here and there in the pubs, but nothing major. His name has been mentioned by people seeing who’s related to him and who’s not.”
Back in Moneygall, locals will gather overnight tonight in the hope that Obama gets four more years in office. Their village’s fortunes might just depend on it.
