Obama visits Ireland, his ancestral homeland
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama step off Air Force One as they arrive in Dublin, Ireland, May 23, 2011. / AP
DUBLIN - President Obama opened a four-country, six-day European tour when Air Force One touched down in Ireland on Monday, where his largely ceremonial visit will highlight America's deep ties with the Irish.
Mr. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama made their way down the plane's steps through the driving wind and rain to be greeted by Irish officials on Dublin airport's tarmac.
The couple quickly climbed aboard the Marine One presidential helicopter for the onward journey to Irish President Mary McAleese's official residence in Dublin, where the Irish leader was to formally welcome Mr. and Mrs. Obama to the Emerald Isle.
The centerpiece of Mr. Obama's 24-hour stop on the Emerald Isle will be a visit to Moneygall, the tiny village where the president's maternal great-great-great-grandfather was born. Residents in the town of 350 eagerly anticipated Obama's arrival and the chance to raise a pint with the American president who shares their roots.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that, while the president is obviously not a full-blooded Irishman, he is, like four other American presidents, Irish enough to make a stop in the ancestral homeland of tens of millions of Irish-American voters.
His great-great-great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, left Moneygall for America in 1850, and the village - freshly painted, prettied up and stocked with souvenirs - was charged in anticipation of his arrival. He was to meet some distant relatives and drop by the local tavern.
The White House said the trip was to "celebrate the relationship between our two countries and the contributions Irish-Americans make to our deep and broad ties."
Mr. Obama will meet also meet with Irish leaders and deliver a speech in the center of Dublin that is expected to celebrate Irish culture.
From Ireland, Mr. Obama will travel to England, France and Poland.
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"Great, Great, Great-Grandfather", is BLOOD, whether you like it or not. THAT - is a closed issue. Or do you all want to go the route of the "birth certificate" thing again, and make him prove this part of his ancestry too?? I didn't think so. Why? Because you know it is probably right. But that doesn't stop you all from claiming "But he's NOT an 'Irishman'!!". Well, no one SAID he was, nor is he CLAIMING to be. It's just that the divider in you all, the anti- "one for all and all for one" people that you are, wants so badly to have him pegged as "this" or "that" SO BADLY so you can begin or continue to label him, that this FACT that he has Irish blood in him pisses you off so very, very badly. Why? Because it's just WAY too many components for you all, it's too confusing, and furthermore - it directly conflicts with your views that his blackness is what is wrong with him. Why? Because Irish people are SO "white", that when speaking of color-only, it is about as opposite as one person can get from himself. THAT RIGHT THERE pisses you all off -- because you all STILL think color, or "race", is what determines intelligence or leadership ability. In this day and age. In this present situation that screams of the damage done by leaders of the recent past, who come up from clubs that don't accept ANYONE who is more than one "race". In fact - and you all know it - the only reason Obama got ANY votes from registered Republicans, is because he had some white in him.
......Anyway, because of your colorism-racial-intelligence possibility theory - and the fact that you won't think he will stick up for your rights as an American because you are white, and he is part black, you just try to knock him down with OBVIOUSLY shallow and unrealistic comments like "What IS he?? First he's Black, then white, then a Muslim, then a Christian, and now he's IRISH?!?!". Well, last I checked - he wasn't claiming to be an Irishman. All he was doing was visiting the country from where his Great, Great, Great-Grandfather was born -- an Irishman. You know it, I know it, THEY know it (The Irish People who packed the area he spoke at). He was just there taking part in some of the customs of a late relative, who then came to America, started a family, and eventually passed on some of his DNA down (or up, in my view) to Obama. A relative who most undoubtedly had OTHER relatives that came to America - and passed their DNA down to YOU ALL TOO. If you're white and Irish and you live in America - you have a better chance of being related by blood in some way to Obama. I bet you're shuddering now. What does that do to your intelligence theories now?
I'm not getting into the other comments, just know that I know, that they were all about literally trying to strike down every little thing he did in Ireland, as somehow "wrong" or with the tone of "Who does he think he is, trying to be an Irishman?"....There is NOTHING he can do "right" with you. You would all spite your face to deny him any credit, spite your towns, your cities, your states, and your country - just to deny him. On down the line, issue by issue -- you'll go opposite just to NEVER let him get any credit for doing anything that makes perfect, rational sense. You all take rational thought and turn it on it's head when talking about Obama's actions, and you don't even try to hide it.
All you can do in your comfortably rich old age, is deny, deny, deny. You're not part of the effort to keep this country on top, you don't care. And why? Because your parents (my Grandparents) won WWII, won the world by fighting and working RATIONALIZING harder than any other generation before them - while all you Baby-boomers grew up spoiled. You collected on all your entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, and now that you've bankrupted our whole country you want to take those programs away from younger generations who ALREADY PAID INTO IT. You're all greedy, spoiled, still living off the blood, sweat, and tears of your parents, and now that you grew up and thrived in an era of "one-job-gets-a-house-and-two-cars-with-two-kids-in-college-and-a-pension-and-money-in-the-bank-when-you-die", you want to deny anyone younger than you any type of security at all, while you sit there and deny our voted-in leader any teamwork, any effort, any CREDIT for trying to clean up the ********** MESS you all made for us by living high on the hog for decades and decades. You're not part of this country - you're not a team player, and you all make me SICK.
-Cleavon Little, 1974-
That line from Blazing Saddles, penned by Richard Pryor, was a funny throw-away. So is this story. Deal with it.
I THINK HE'S AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE JUST BY ALL THE MOUTHING HE WAS DOING IN HIS SPEECH AT THE COLLEGE GREEN IN IRELAND...AND DOING IT IN A TIPSY CONDITION AFTER RAISING HIS PINT OF BEER SEVERAL TIMES IN THE AIR AND LAUGHING CLAIMING TO BE IRISH! MY HEAVENS, HE JUST GOT THROUGH CLAIMING TO BE AMERICAN...AND NOW HE'S IRISH? WHATEVER! OH, AND I'M SURE I'LL BE TITLED A RACIST FOR SAYING SOMETHING ABOUT HIM! BUT I'LL PUT ANY OTHER PRESIDENT UP AGAINST HIM IN REGARDS TO DIGNITY AND RESPECT FOR THE POSITION THEY HELD... HE'S DISRESPECTED HIS POSITION SO BAD THAT MANY DAYS HE WEARS GOLF SHIRTS AND SLACKS INSTEAD OF WEARING A NICE SUIT EVERY DAY TO WORK.
Truth is, there would not be any race issues in America if Blacks would let it drop. Being born, raised, and continuing to live in Birmingham, as I do, pretty much makes one an expert on the subject! It's the blacks here that keep racism at the forefront. TAKE MY WORD FOR IT... If you were to ask anyone white about the racial issues, they'd tell you VERY quick that if they see another picture or video on TV, the Newspaper, or in magazine showing the "dogs and fire hoses" they'll absolutely throw up! Bull Conner the mayor who authorized the dogs and fore hoses is still spoken about as if he's still walking around... All we hear is "the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church", and nothing is mentioned about Bull Conner's church, Woodlawn United Methodist Church burning down two years ago, and arson is the cause...to which noone has been caught although the next door bank's video shows two young black guys breaking into and coming out of the church 10 minutes before the fire began...and NOONE ELSE was within blocks of it!!!!!! We have had to sit back and watch our tax money build a "Civil Rights Institute" with the lifesize figures of the police, blacks, dogs and firehoses... the bus with Rosa Park's seat...the counter from Woolworth's, etc..... There's a street named for every black person who walked in the Selma march!!!! (OK, a little exaggeration there...) But there are streets and avenues across B'ham named after black marchers, mayors....one of our black mayors recently changed the name of Birmingham International Airport to "Shuttlesworth International Airport" in honor of Fred Shuttlesworth of the Civil Rights March, and NOONE IN THE CITY EVEN HAD A CHOICE, OR EVEN KNEW ABOUT IT UNTIL AFTER IT HAPPENED! Of course, that mayor is in prison now for stealing money! The blacks gripe about all the black people in jail and prison here, but never anything about HOW they got there... According to them, they were singled out, it's not the fact that Bham is the highest murder rated city in the US per capita, and all but ONE murder last year was committed BY blacks...the ONE was a hispanic... SO, IF YOU WANT TO TALK RACE, BABY...YOU BETTER GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, CAUSE I CAN QUOTE TRUE FACTS FOR EVERY BIT OF THE RACISM YOU ACCUSE WHITES OF!
Go figure. Can't even understand why he went there except to vacation. Hey, even the Queen didn't go there until this past year.
The car gets stuck in a Dublin driveway and has to be abandoned.
What a loser.