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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: the_wheel who wrote (244391)	4/3/2008 5:20:35 PM
From: Tom Clarke	Respond to of 793955

O'Bama For sure, Obama's South Side Irish ANCESTRY \| One of his roots traces back to small village May 3, 2007 BY BRIAN HUTTON DUBLIN -- Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's ancestry has been traced back to a shoemaker in a small Irish village, it was reported Wednesday. Obama's campaign wasn't talking about the revelation, but Chicago Ald. Ed Burke (14th) said he wasn't surprised. "I could tell from the very first time I saw him -- he's got such a way with words," said Burke, who himself can trace ancestors to counties Clare and Kerry. Records unearthed in the home of an elderly Irish parishioner who died recently have shed new light on the Illinois senator's ancestry. A Church of Ireland rector scoured files from the church -- the equivalent of the U.S. Episcopal Church -- dating to the late 1700s. He confirmed that Obama descended from Moneygall, County Offaly. The village today holds little more than a couple of pubs, shops and a Roman Catholic church. Canon Stephen Neill, from a nearby town, began delving into Obama's past after a U.S. genealogist told him about the possible connection. "I would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is categorical evidence of Mr. Obama's link to this part of the world," said the rector. It was initially believed the would-be president's great-great-great-grandfather Fulmuth Kearney was the only one of his family to have sailed from Ireland to New York at age 19 in 1850. But the newly uncovered records show other family members had in fact emigrated to America since the 1790s. They also reveal that Fulmuth's father, Joseph, was a shoemaker -- a wealthy skilled trade at the time. "They would have been among the upper echelons of society back then," said Neill. He said he thinks the name Fulmuth -- unusual for an Irish man -- was most likely a surname that was taken as a first name. Obama was born in Hawaii to a black man from Kenya and a white woman -- with Irish links -- from Kansas. "I've got pieces of everybody in me," he has been quoted as saying. But does the piece from Moneygall make Obama -- who lives in the South Side's Kenwood neighborhood -- South Side Irish? "Of course," Burke said. Press Association of Ireland, with Sun-Times Staff Reporter Matthew Nickerson contributing suntimes.com