He’s touted his father’s Kenyan roots and his mother’s Kansas upbringing.
But Irish Americans say they’re still waiting for Barack Obama to embrace another influential figure from his past: his great-great-great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney.
An Irish immigrant who came to America in 1850, Kearney hailed from Moneygall, County Offaly, a tiny Irish village about an hour and a half west of Dublin. And according to Ancestry.com, this link makes Obama about 3.1 percent Irish.
The relationship is a stretch, but the Irish — both in the U.S. and abroad — have since become fixated with turning Obama into O’bama.
“He’s as much Irish as he is Kenyan,” said Irish American Democrats President Stella O’Leary. “He’s been very wrapped up in his African-American heritage. But we will welcome him with open arms.”
In Moneygall, there’s been a move to build an Obama exhibit near Kearney Gardens, ancestral land that officials say belonged to the Kearney family. And an Irish band known as the Corrigan Brothers has grabbed the international limelight with an infectious hit called “There’s No One as Irish as Barack Obama.”
With St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching in Washington, Irish-American politicians, lobbyists and even local Irish pub owners are urging Obama to publicly embrace his Irish lineage.
“God bless Falmouth Kearney, he married into good stock. It’s been a wonderfully pleasant surprise,” said American Ireland Fund President Kieran McLoughlin. “And now the main platform to showcase that [connection] occurs in about a week.”
Earlier this year, O’Leary and the Irish American Democrats managed to track down Henry Healy, a 24-year-old Moneygall resident who is Obama’s clearest living link to Falmouth Kearney.
Healy, who experts believe is an eighth cousin to Obama, was featured in an advertisement by the group aimed at building Irish-American votes for Obama. He even attended the group’s inaugural ball in Washington.
After a nearly seven-hour plane ride, Healy arrived carrying a letter from the people of Moneygall inviting Obama to visit, but he never caught a glimpse of his cousin.
“It’s surreal to think that I share the same ancestry as the most powerful man in the world,” Healy told POLITICO. “I’ve never heard from Obama. But I think he’s had more important things on his mind than to contact a very distant relative in Ireland.”
Outside the Irish community, organizers say Obama’s link to the homeland isn’t well-known — partly because the family tree was discovered only months after he kicked off his presidential campaign and partly because he rarely mentioned it.
“He doesn’t want to dilute his brand by introducing other nationalities,” said Darrell West, government studies vice president at the Brookings Institution. “He has told a very powerful story about growing up biracial. If he adds the Irish piece, that message gets distorted.”
Obama only occasionally noted his Irish roots on the campaign trail, most notably at a Society of Irish Women St. Patrick’s Day dinner in Scranton, Pa., last year.
“It turns out I have Irish heritage, and I’m not talking about my cousin Dick Cheney,” Obama told the cheering crowd. “It never hurts to be a little Irish when running for president of the United States.”
But Obama’s not ignoring the Irish community, which has large voting blocs in Northeastern urban areas as well as Chicago. Earlier this month, Obama issued a traditional proclamation naming March Irish-American Heritage Month.
And according to the Irish American Democrats, the White House is planning an over-the-top St. Patrick’s Day gala.
Most important, the White House has invited Ireland’s prime minister to participate in the annual Shamrock ceremony, a tradition that seemed in doubt earlier this year.
Experts say Prime Minister Brian Cowen is also eager for Obama to connect with his roots — the Taoiseach also hails from County Offaly.
“There will be that cherished moment when the legacy is acknowledged,” said Rep. Richard E. Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Friends of Ireland. “Obama seems to do a good job of presenting himself as a regular guy, and acknowledging this historic link makes a lot of sense.”
Neal, who was one of Obama’s primary stumpers in Irish-American communities during the campaign, said he has steadily urged Obama and White House officials to more publicly embrace the connection with a trip to Ireland.
He was one of the few who weren’t caught off guard by Obama’s connection.
“[I] stopped being surprised after experts discovered that President Bill Clinton, a Baptist from Arkansas, had Irish roots,” he said.
In D.C., Irish pub owners are also eager to highlight — and make a profit on — the Obama connection.
At the Dubliner restaurant, one of Washington’s premier intersections of all things Irish and politics, general manager Gavin Coleman has been selling out of T-shirts with caricatures of Obama and Vice President Joe Biden drinking on the bar’s high stools.
“All great leaders have a bit of Irish in them,” said Coleman. “He’s not been through the Dub Club, unfortunately, but people still love the charm of it all. They like to find something they can identify with.”
