Obama mania sweeping Ireland
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President Obama was met with enthusiastic crowds in Ireland
The president was met with huge crowds as he arrived in Moneygall, Ireland, earlier today. He and Michelle shook hands and shared a Guinness at Ollie Hays Pub (picture above), while kibitzing with the crowd. It took weeks to make Moneygall presentable, and all of the 350 resident chipped in. Read the following from Salon for more on the facelift.
Ever since the American president announced on St. Patrick’s Day he would visit his ancestral Irish home, the village of Moneygall has been suffering an incurable case of Obama mania.
This roadside hamlet of two pubs, three shops and barely 350 residents has repainted every house, festooned every lamppost and seemingly rebranded every product in preparation for Monday’s visit by President Barack Obama. Locals have stood in line for hours to receive one of 3,000 tickets that will let them meet Moneygall’s most famous son.
“We’ve all been caught up in this dream. Nothing in the village seems real,” said Henry Healy, a 26-year-old accountant for a plumbing firm who discovered four years ago he was one of Obama’s closest Irish relatives. “I’ve been rehearsing what I’m going to say to the president for months in my head. I can’t really believe it’s going to happen.”
As he spoke, the powerful rotors of two U.S. military helicopters thumped in the distance, and a deliveryman arrived with another truckload of spiced Irish fruitbread called brack — rebranded “Barack’s Brack” this month across Ireland and bearing a cartoon portrait of the president.
Healy received Ticket No. 0001 since he’s an eighth cousin to Obama, the closest blood relative still living in Moneygall. In fact, he lives next door to the American flag-festooned pub that Obama is expected to visit.
U.S. and Irish genealogists have detected several other distant Irish cousins of Obama living in Ireland and England, including Dick Benn and Ton Donovan, whose families live just across the border in County Tipperary and have farmed the same land for 2 1/2 centuries.
They’re all descendants of Falmouth Kearney, one of Obama’s great-great-great grandfathers on his Kansas mother’s side. Kearney, a shoemaker, emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1850 at age 19, at the height of the Great Famine.
Every known Irish relative is expected to be standing on Moneygall’s Main Street when Obama begins a six-day, four-nation trip across Europe.
Nationally, Ireland has barely had time to register Obama’s imminent arrival. The country just hosted a high-security tour of Queen Elizabeth II, the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland following its 1919-21 war of independence from Britain. Her triumphant four-day tour involved carefully choreographed acts of reconciliation.
No such drama awaits Obama. Ireland has always offered warm welcomes to U.S. presidents since John F. Kennedy became the first to visit in 1963. More than 40 million Americans have Irish ancestors. The two countries today enjoy exceptional ties of culture and commerce, a crucial relationship for Ireland because of its current battle to avoid national bankruptcy.
Obama’s biggest event Monday will be an open-air speech at the entrance to Trinity College in Dublin, the capital that spent much of the last week in a security lockdown for the queen.
A no-ticket crowd is being encouraged to gather in the street outside Trinity several hours beforehand, lured in part by rumors that an array of Irish bands, actors and other celebrities will provide a warm-up act.
While Obama is widely admired in Ireland, he doesn’t have anything close to the fan base built by Bill Clinton, who made Northern Ireland peacemaking a top priority and visited both parts of Ireland three times from 1995 to 2000.
But Moneygall officials have been cheering for Obama since the Iowa primaries in hopes that his entry to the White House would put their long-bypassed village — beside the Dublin-to-Limerick highway in the southwest corner of County Offaly — on the tourist map.
They held an all-night party in Ollie’s Bar the night Obama won the 2008 presidential race, and began lobbying for a visit immediately. Obama announced he would come during the St. Patrick’s Day visit to Washington by Ireland’s newly elected prime minister, Enda Kenny.
Secret Service agents in dark suits and sunglasses arrived in Moneygall last month.
Locals have applied 3,500 liters of paint and laid new sidewalks. A village caterer has painted U.S. and Irish flags on the front of his home and is cooking Obama burgers. Construction workers have hurriedly built the Obama Cafe. The altar of the Catholic church has been covered in red, white and blue bunting.
Guinness last week delivered a specially brewed keg of stout to be poured the moment when Obama walks through the door of Ollie’s Bar, which sports a bronze bust, painting and life-size photo cutout of the president.
“It will be the most important pint I’ll ever pour,” said Ollie Hayes, standing behind the bar of his pub. In recent weeks it’s been inundated with tourist buses and journalists and Irish and international musicians performing live for free.
“Moneygall has never seen such a carnival. Early mornings, late nights. There’s been plenty a sore head the morning after the night before,” Hayes said as Nigerian drummers, singers and dancers prepared to perform.
Moneygall’s favorite performers are the Corrigan Brothers, a Limerick band. Their singalong “There’s No One as Irish as Barack Obama” became an internet sensation in 2008 and has gone through several lyrical mutations.
The two brothers sang their latest version, “Welcome Home, President Barack Obama,” to a raucous, standing-room-only pub crowd Saturday night. An alternative version already lined up for Obama’s re-election campaign claims: “He’s as Irish as Riverdance, Guinness and Joyce — in 2012 there’s only one choice!”
None of these celebrations would have been possible but for the village’s Protestant minister, Canon Stephen Neill, who barely has any parishioners in the overwhelmingly Catholic area but is arguably its most popular figure.
It was he who, in 2007, pored through birth and baptism records of the Templeharry Church of Ireland, 3 miles (5 kilometers) outside Moneygall, and made the fateful discovery of Falmouth Kearney’s baptism.
He had received calls from American genealogist Megan Smolenyak who was pursuing the many strands of Obama’s background. She, too, will be in Moneygall to meet the president.
Neill concedes there’s plenty of people who are more Irish than Obama.
“He’s about 5 percent Irish, we reckon. But that’s enough,” Neill said. “They do say there’s a little bit of Irish in everybody.”
What do you think about Obama’s Ireland visit? Let us know in the comments section.
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What would Obama think if he saw this?
I suspect he would say, in a measured and thoughtful voice, that the loss of life on both sides was tragic, and that he hopes humankind can emulate the peace treaties that helped Ireland in other parts of the world, or some such statement.
I don’t know; you might ask his office what position he might have on this.
Here we go…
The Spectator ( a left wing journal therefore not my normal first port of call obviously )
The United States and the IRA
Wednesday, 14th January 2009
Responding to Stephen Walt’s hypothetical (What if Gaza were full of jews?), Megan McArdle compares the Israel lobby to the Irish-American lobby. Ross Douthat says, OK, but the IRA was still considered a terrorist organisation. Daniel Larison dives into the weeds of US attitudes towards Irish terrorism. He writes:
The IRA was a genuine terrorist group, but it was listed as such by our government most of all because it was a sworn enemy of one of our closest allies. The record seems clear: terrorist groups that are useful to us or harmful to states we officially oppose are given a pass, while those that target us or our allies are condemned in the strongest terms. That’s the nature of things in the real world, I suppose, but it is something that none of the reponses to the counterfactual seems to be taking into account. Had things gone very differently in the last century and London and Washington became enemies once more, it is very easy to imagine that the IRA or similar groups would have been made into anti-British proxies of the U.S. government.
True enough. And of course the State Department did have the IRA on its list of terrorist groups. Nonetheless, the State Department is not quite the same as the US government. And in the 1990s there’s no denying that Washington generally shared the (Irish) Republican analysis of the state of play in Ulster. Indeed the Clinton administration viewed itself as a kind of backstop looking after Sinn Fein’s interetss and point of view. Crucially, that’s how the Republican movement saw the Americans too. They were there to provide support and ballast for the nationalist viewpoint, countering the presumed pro-Unionist bias of the British. That is to say, Dublin and Washington would, together, counter the Brits in Belfast and London. It’s peace, of a sort, but it’s not a result that was supposed to happen. Nor is it one that many people would have found acceptable back in, say, 1994.
Sure, Clinton made plenty of phone calls and a visit or two. But when push came to shove he refused to put additional pressure on Sinn Fein and the IRA. Consequently the Good Friday Agreement was signed despite there being a crippling ambiguity on the question of decommissioning terrorist arms. The failure to resolve that problem would cripple the peae “settlement” for years, helping to hollow-out the centre of Northern Irish politics, leading us to the present happy state of play: government by bigots and murderers.
This wasn’t, obviously, all Clinton’s fault. Nontheless one reason Tony Blair lost faith in the american president was Clinton’s habit of promising to lean on the Republican movement and then signally failing to follow his promises with, like, actual action. The State Department may have been hostile to the IRA -it opposed giving Gerry Adams visas to enter the US – but the rest of the US government, including the likes of Tony Lake at the National Security Council was entirely sympathetic to the “cause” of Irish Republicanism.
Daniel says:
Were it not for our very close postwar relations with London, it is hard to imagine that modern U.S. policy would have been all that different from the tolerance for Stateside Fenian and IRB organizers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the rapturous welcome accorded to the republican extremist De Valera when he visited the United States. Popular opinion in the U.S. was very much behind the Irish nationalist cause and it spread far beyond the Irish immigrant community. For a country nursed on Anglophobia, Irish republicanism appeared as a sister movement to our own fight for independence.
True enough. However, as I say, I think that there was, despite all the public pronouncements to the contrary, a kind of sotto voce enthusiasm for the IRA and its aims if not always its methods!) that persisted, despite the powerful inducements to give the British the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, it’s probably not entirely coincidental that Washington became more interested in the Irish problem once a) a Democrat was back in the White House and b) the Cold War had ended, lessening British influence in Washington and the importance of assuaging British concerns. (Also, of course, Reagan was not likely to look too favourably upon the people who tried to murder his great friend Margaret.) Still, when the “peace process” got underway it didn’t come as much surprise to discover that the US was in the green corner. No suprise there and it might be, too, that this was necessary. But let’s not pretend that Washington was a neutral player.
I will copy and paste so many articles I may run out of space as I would imagine even MMA is not without limits…
If you like I’ll send you links to news articles regarding the USA’s support of a terrorist organisation.
Alternatively….go Google it yourselves…
…after a few voddies and no response from America…I can only chant a football (that’s proper football by the way) chant when you’ve scored over the opposition supporters and they all go quiet…
‘It’s all gone quiet over there…oh it’s all gone quiet over there…it’s all gone quiet…it’s all gone quiet..it’s all gone quiet over there’
Lost yer tongue America? (I do love yer really….most of the time)
IRA?…American dollars?…America supporting terrorists? …Dead Brits?…Come on…speak up…your views? Is the question too hard?…
Silence isn’t golden it’s guilt….and so it should be.
G’nite America…sweet dreams eh?
I did not respond because I assumed the absurdities of your claims were loud enough to speak on their own. If you have some evidence to support your ravings, I would be interested in hearing it as it would be something of deep concern.
I don’t know what claims Anonymous sees as absurd. US Congressman Peter King (R)- current chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee openly supported the Irish Republican Army in the 1980’s, and was quoted by the New York Times as saying;”We must pledge ourselves to support the brave men and women(of the IRA) who this very moment are carrying for the struggle against British imperialism…” The man is now attacking US citizens who are Muslim with the same vigor he used to defend the Irish American interests which got him elected.
Wikipedia describes Irish American support of the IRA, but notes that by far the greatest supporter of the Provisional IRA by groups outside Ireland came from Libya.
To Jihad punk-I think the majority of Americans were appalled by the murders carried out by the Provisional IRA, just as they would have been appalled if British atrocities were still being carried out in the name of the Crown.
Howdo Newage thingy….True. Libya did a lot of supporting the IRA….so did certain sections of American society.
British atrocities certainly occured – Bloody Sunday springs eternally to mind – but I’m specifically talking about American support for a terrorist organisation.
How do Irish/Americans who primarily were the people raising funds for The IRA tally their support for one terrorist organisation against their hatred of another…Call Me AL Qaida?
I’m genuinely curious how their minds work….assuming they do of course…even what passes for my mind would struggle with such an anomaly…
One idiot like Peter King doth not a consensus make. No where can I find where the United States, with the approval of the Congress, or the president, authorized funds for the IRA. It’s bloody nonsense is what it is. It is not bloody true.
J. Punk-I too would be interested in how someone justifies supporting one source of terror but not another(Which raises questions about how the folks who pushed the US into Iraq can sleep at night), but most all of us have irrationalities of some sort or other-but they don’t all cause self or others to die. Interesting blog, btw.
Barb- Nobody on this thread said anything about an American consensus of support for the Provisional IRA, nor did anyone suggest the US government authorized funds for the IRA-except you. I’m not sure what you are referring to as bloody nonsense.
Newageluddite : I am ‘right wing’ (In England) but I hate the illegal wars we are fighting and often find myself shoulder to shoulder with liberals.
The following day the same liberals want to beat me up for being ‘Islamophobic’ – which I am – and racist – which I’m actually not.
I think my problem is I won’t ‘conform’ to any view entirely – other than MY view.
I’m ‘Johnny no mates’ I am…;-)
…and I said it was authorised by The President Barb?
Of course it wasn’t. Irish Americans raised funds – many millions of dollars – and sent it over to the IRA or purchased weapons for them and sent over the weapons.
Britain had, and has, in my opinion, no claim to any part of Ireland – I won’t argue the history here, it’d take a decade to write.
However.
Blowing up civilians on mainland UK occured frequently as a direct result of funds raised in the USA.
The truth may hurt – but not half as much as it hurt the poor innocent civilians who got blown to hell eh?
We all have skeletons people.
This is one of America’s.
Such is life…or if you were unlucky and in the wrong place at the wrong time when an American funded bomb went off in London…such is death.
Consider yourselves forgiven.
You were probably distracted by The Super Bowl or whatever it is…;-)
Peter King was not ‘one idiot’ Barb….I will send you all the links you want to show America supported the IRA.
America supported terrorism.
Sad but undeniably true.
..and I’m not for one moment suggesting England hasn’t…
Our politicians are not what we want or need them to be.
Never have been and, frankly, never will be.
Again…Sad but undeniably true.
Evening Anon….I take it you are unaware of financial aid to the IRA from America?
Please confirm. If you are you are clearly on a different planet – which, considering the state of this one is not necessarily a bad thing – otherwise I will cheerfully give you as much evidence of American support for a terrorist organisation called The IRA as you want.
It’s out there on the net mate. Seek and you shall find.
Perhaps another reason nobody responded to your taunts was that they were completely off topic. Perhaps someone can do an IRA post just for you.
er…off topic?…Obama in Ireland?…IRA?
Perhaps not directly ‘on topic’ but there’s certainly a clear connection….
Obama, President of the USA…a country whose citizens (some of) openly funded the IRA?
You wouldn’t by any small chance be Irish American would you Jackie?…Just a thought…
Not taunts babe. Facts.
I’m a patriotic Englishman who loves and would defend MY country to the death – well…I’d prefer to stop before the ‘death’ bit kicks in as it happens….
I know about ‘Bloody Sunday’ and am suitably ashamed of what my ancestors did that day.
‘Bloody Sunday’ does not justify the bomb at Canary Wharf.
‘Bloody Sunday’ does not justify any terrorist activity on mainland UK.
Innocent civilians died as a direct result of bombing campaigns by the IRA.
Many bombs funded by Irish Americans.
I don’t want ‘revenge’ or even an apology.
Acceptance that America allowed it to happen would suffice.
America isn’t perfect – and probably knows it….
It would be rather nice though to hear it from Americans once in a while.
There are several hundred dead English people because a part of American society – Irish Americans – sent over funds etc to the IRA.
I just want to see acceptance. Acknowledgement by America that it actually happened.
That’ll do.
At least for me but I didn’t lose anybody…..
Question. Is there such a thing as an American without an Irish ancestor?…Just wondering…
I do actually quite like Obama but he is clearly not white…which may not be an issue as the late great Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy was black and Irish…but Obama has Irish ancestory???
Maybe he has but I’m not a believer yet.
Besides…The IRA (a terrorist organisation no different to Call Me Al Qaida) flourished due to American dollars.
I would be interested in American views on American donations to a terrorist organisation. (oh…and I do actually believe Ireland should be for the Irish incidentally as England should be for the English…I just wonder what MMA readers views are on subsidising a terrorist organisation from America?)
Whilst I readily accept Britain should have long ago got the hell out of Northern Ireland, did the death of innocent civilians in Britain ever tweak the conscience of Americans?
Just wondering….
When people say IRA in America, they probably are thinking about the retirement option (Individual Retirement Account).
That said, let me enjoy rubbing this in Bush’s face. Can you imagine him receiving a warm audience in ANY European country?
Possibly a warm audience in hell?…;-)