Why Bush is one of our own
Like most US presidents, Bush’s ancestry is predominantly WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant).
However, there are significant elements of Irish ancestry as well, entitling President Bush to be considered at least partly one of Ireland’s own, with roots both in the north and south of the country.
One of the president’s five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, Co Down, about 1755, and died in Kentucky about 1811-12.
One of his seven times great-grandfathers, William Shannon, was born somewhere in Co Cork about 1730, and died in Pennsylvania in 1784.
It has also recently been claimed that on his mother’s side, another of the president’s ancestors, one William Gault, who was living in Tennessee in 1796, may have been born in Co Antrim.
President Bush’s Irish connections do not end there, for US genealogist William Addams Reitwiesner has discovered that Bush is distantly related to the late Irish president, Erskine Childers.
President Bush’s eleven times great- grandparents, William Hutchinson and Anne Marbury, both born in Lincolnshire in the 16th century, were also ancestors of President Childers’s mother, Mary Alden ‘Molly’ Osgood, who was born in Boston.
Alas, President Childers’s daughter, Green Party politician Nessa Childers, has gone on record as not welcoming her distant cousin’s Irish visit. While hitherto not perceived to be as personally interested in the Northern peace process as his predecessor, Bill Clinton, President Bush’s second visit to Ireland may have been connected to a desire to attract the Irish-American vote in the approaching presidential election.
The war in Iraq may continue to dominate his agenda, but the fact that President Bush has roots in the north and south of Ireland may be considered to augur well for continuing American support for the completion of the peace process.
By way of postscript, the publication of former President Clinton’s memoirs recalls his Irish connections which, contrary to common perception, are much less clear than President Bush’s.
Again, the story that Clinton’s maternal Cassidy ancestry has been traced back to Roslea, Co Fermanagh, is undocumented, and all that can be said is that the place of origin was probably somewhere in Ulster.
Furthermore, a recent publication has drawn attention to the fact that the connection of President Kennedy’s ancestors with Dunganstown, Co Wexford, is speculative rather than definitely proven.
For further information on American presidents with Irish ancestors, see http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/dir/pres.htm.
Sean Murphy,
Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies,
Cliff Road,
Windgates,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
