Obama: US, Ireland Share 'Blood Link'

First Lady takes a page from her native Chicago

(NEWSER) - Fountains on the White House lawns run green today in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, the Chicago Tribune reports. The dye was suggested by the First Lady, perhaps to make Pennsylvania Ave a bit more like her native Chicago, which dyes the Chicago River green to mark the holiday. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, visiting today, gave the president a bowl of shamrocks. More»

(NEWSER) - Moneygall, Ireland, has two pubs, 298 people, and happens to be the birthplace of Barack Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, the Los Angeles Times reports. The fact is not lost on the quaint hamlet, where one pub flies an American flag and the plumbing supply company uses the president’s face in its ads. “There’s a definitive blood link between our family and Barack Obama,” said one eighth cousin. More»

Obama gives uplifting speech about Irish-American friendship

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama let his Irish pride shine today in a speech before an exultant sea of people in Dublin, telling them he'd come to reaffirm the US' enduring friendship with Ireland, the AP reports. "There's always been a little green behind the red, white, and blue," he told the roughly 30,000 people crowding the streets of central Dublin to hear him, praising the many who had emigrated from Ireland to America, and reveling in his own Irish roots. More»

Moneygall readies for president's visit tomorrow

(NEWSER) - It's not often that drivers blink twice when passing the tiny Irish village of Moneygall, so one might imagine the frenzy that results when Barack Obama swings by for a visit tomorrow. Along with the country's trademark green and orange, locals have decked the County Offaly town out in red, white, and blue, opened an Obama Cafe, and started hawking Obama T-shirts in honor of the president's visit tomorrow, reports the Irish Times. The Offaly Independent has even been re-branded the Obama Independent. More»

Better make that White House beer a Guinness

(NEWSER) - The beer James Crowley and Henry Louis Gates have with the president should be a Guinness if genetics are anything to go by, Irish Central reports. The Harvard professor and the Cambridge cop—along with about 3 million other people—are distant cousins with shared Irish heritage, both descended from 4th-century Irish warlord Niall of the Nine Hostages, whose prowess on the battlefield and in the bedroom was legendary. More»