| Irish roots of presidential frontrunner
are revealed  AMERICA
could have its first black Irish president next year.
Internet website Ancestry.co.uk has identified presidential hopeful Barack
Obama’s ancestor on his mother’s side as Falmouth Kearne,
who fled Ireland and the Famine at the age of 19.
He arrived in New York from Liverpool on March 20, 1850 then moved on
to Ohio to be among his relatives.
A spokesman for Ancestry.co.uk said: “A great deal has been made
of Obama’s Kenyan roots however his European ancestry has been overlooked.
“If Obama becomes the next US president he may well be the first
to have Kenyan ancestry but he will also join a long list of those with
Irish ancestry including Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and of course John
F Kennedy.”
The Senator for Illinois is battling with President Clinton’s wife
Hillary for the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Presidential
election which will take place in autumn next year.
Beyond the Oval Office, some 34.7million Americans claim Irish ancestry
that’s almost nine-times the current population of Ireland.
And on St. Patrick’s Day that figure multiplies faster than the
consumption of green stout in an Irish bar.
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