Posted by Frank James at 6:38 pm CDT
You know St. Patrick’s Day is around the corner (it’s Saturday) when Ancestry.com issues a press release that breathlessly announces it has discovered Sen. Barack Obama’s Irish roots.
Here’s the top of the press release:
PROVO, Utah, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ancestry.com, the world's largest online resource for family history which recently discovered Al Sharpton's shocking connection to Strom Thurmond, revealed today that presidential hopeful Barack Obama has Irish branches in his family tree. More than a century and a half ago, 19-year-old Falmouth Kearney, Obama's third great-grandfather, sailed from Ireland, landing in New York harbor on March 20, 1850. Settling initially in Ohio among Irish relatives, Falmouth married, had eight children, and eventually moved to Indiana. Three of Falmouth's daughters married three brothers with the last name Dunham. Obama's mother is descended from one of these couples -- her birth name was Dunham.
As just about anyone familiar with the outlines of Obama’s biography knows, Obama’s mother was a white American and his father was a black African.
The press release is somewhat overheated to say the least. The Sharpton-Thurmond connection wasn’t really “shocking.” One of Thurmond’s ancestors owned one of Sharpton’s. Now, if it had been the other way around with an ancestor of the African-American activist owning an ancestor of the late senator and former white supremacist, that would have truly been something.
The press release goes on to say this:
If Obama succeeds in his presidential aspirations, he won't be the first Commander in Chief with ties to Ireland. Ronald Reagan's great-grandfather, Michael O'Regan, was born in Ireland in the 1820s, as was John F. Kennedy's great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy.
Actually, Bill Clinton was thought to have some Irish in him too; his mother’s maiden name was Virginia Cassidy, after all.
Getting back to Obama, a lot of wags have remarked that his African surname sounded sort of Irish, like O’Reilly. Evidently it’s more Irish than we knew.
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Comments
Well, he has everything but, french in him. I am still waiting on that.
Posted by: vwcat | March 12, 2007 7:42 PM
That genealogy stuff is quite fascinating. My recently deceased mother was really into it. I actually traveled to England on her behalf to get the scoop on the family. When I discovered through my research that our "people" most likely migrated from the barbarian hoards in Gaul, I told her to look no further. The Romans kicked our butts, let's just leave it at that.
Posted by: dt | March 12, 2007 8:26 PM
Countdown for the Wingnuts:
4.....3...2...1..START SWIFTBOATING GOP ROBOTS!!!
Posted by: John E. | March 12, 2007 9:08 PM
Now we find out he's from drunk slaveowners.
P.S. - I'm Irish and that was sarcasm
Posted by: Terry | March 12, 2007 9:59 PM
I'm sure that we'll have another anti-Obama slur from that shriveled up,old fart Republican Leo T. on this post story.
This election,just like the midterm election,is going be about the GOP's Iraq disaster and that's why the Republicans are going to lose again,it won't matter how much they distort,smear and lie about the Democratic candidates such as Barack Obama.
Personally I'd like to see Republican President Chimpy have to hand over the keys to the Whitehouse in Jan.09 to Hillary and Bill just so I could see the look on that dry drunks face.
Posted by: Agent Swiftboat | March 13, 2007 12:08 AM
Sigh. Just when I think the Swamp is turning around, we get another pointless Obama-worshipping story from Frank James. At least it sparked some more of those amusing cries of "swiftboating" from the midless robots of the left.
Posted by: no name | March 13, 2007 7:58 AM
Now we know how Boy Wonder got in so deep into the Chicago machine. Probably goes to the Daley family reunion.
Posted by: Terry | March 13, 2007 8:47 AM
We out here who sopport the Obama campaign thanks you for your positive research, good coverage. mlc
Posted by: Michael | March 13, 2007 7:54 PM
Why are we burying the fact that his father was a Muslim and his mother became a Muslim to marry his stepfather? Did he ever work for anyone except the goverment? He must still have a fondness for Muslims since the church he belongs to is the one that Louis Farakhan attends.
Posted by: Lenore | February 25, 2008 12:01 PM