O'Bama Of The Auld Sod

How Irish is Barack O'Bama? If Church of Ireland rector Stephen Neill is correct, then the politician is truly entitled to wear the green.

Mr. Neill rummaged through church records going back to the late 1700's, working in tandem with Latter Day Saints genealogists in Salt Lake City. The CoI canon is fairly confident of his conclusion, that Mr. O'Bama is descended from one Fulmuth Kearney, born in Moneygall, County Offaly, hard by the border with County Tipperary.

The great-great-great-grandfather was the son of Joseph, a shoemaker, meaning that the family was actually rather well off as they were skilled tradesmen. They worshipped at the Anglican Church, which was converted into a private home about thirty years ago. Not much call for Anglican services in post-Treaty Ireland, yet it's good to know that the historic building still stands. Besides the former church, the little town can boast of a pub or two, a few shops, and a Catholic church that serves the local populace.

Fulmuth Kearney sailed for New York in 1850, a young man of 19. He was not without family in America, however, as Canon Neill's research has discovered evidence of other emigrations by the Kearney family, going back to the 1790's. It gives Mr. O'Bama some very deep, well developed roots in the United States, almost from the country's birth.

So when it's St. Paddy's Day, and the Chicago River has been dyed green, Barack O'Bama can justifiably take his place in the parade, to march with the other Sons of Eire and know that he is one of them, and perhaps more one of them than they are themselves.