Last Meeting

The Society heard a fascinating talk on Monday, 23rd January 2012 by Brian Walker, Professor of Irish Studies at Queen's University Belfast, on the subject of the Irish ancestry of US President Barack Obama.
  It is well known that a number of US Presidents had family connections with Ireland. Taking the clue from family names, it seemed only natural that John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan could claim Irish ancestry. But Barack Obama?
  Professor Walker's researches seem to have thrown up as many questions as answers.
  President Obama made a much publicized visit to the little town of Moneygall in County Offaly in 2011 to visit the house of his ancestor Fulmouth Kearney and meet his surviving relatives. He had a much photographed pint of Guinness in the local pub and was welcomed as a distinguished son of the town.
  Yet a significant puzzle remains about the identity of the crucial ancestor, Fulmouth Kearney, as there is no written evidence on the Irish side that he ever existed, not only in Moneygall, but anywhere else in Ireland.
  However this is not the end of the story. There is a record in the Church of Ireland in Moneygall of the birth of a Timothy Kearney, with a date matching that of the elusive Fulmouth.

  Using ships’ passenger lists, Professor Walker showed that there was a clear record that a Fulmouth Kearney emigrated to America on the SS Marmion in 1850. His age matches that of Timothy exactly.

  Fulmouth travelled with an older couple, William & Margaret Cleary, and the three of them set up house together in Ohio. Fulmouth married in 1861 and subsequently there is a clear line of descent to Obama’s mother, showing that Fulmouth was Obama’s g-g-g-grandfather.
  On balance, Professor Walker suggested that there was enough circumstantial evidence available to enable us to accept that Timothy and Fulmouth were the same person and that Barack Obama’s ancestry was therefore rooted in Moneygall.
  A few questions remain: why did Timothy change his name and why choose something as strange as Fulmouth? Perhaps Fulmouth was a nickname, which became embedded. We will probably never know.
  In looking at the Irish ancestry of other US Presidents, Professor Walker left Donaghadee with a tantalizing possibility. It is generally accepted that Woodrow Wilson’s grandfather came from Strabane in Co. Tyrone. But there is no documentary evidence of this and there is some evidence that he came, in fact, from County Down. His grandmother Ann (née Adams) told her grandchildren that, as a child, she could see the linen hanging on the lines in Scotland. So could his family have come from Donaghadee?
  A vote of thanks by Society President Harry Allen on behalf of the audience of the 45 members and visitors present was greeted with a warm round of applause.
  The next meeting will be held on Monday, 27th February when Roger Dixon of the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum will talk on The Great Houses of Belfast and their Families. Venue: Donaghadee Sailing Club, 20 Shore Street. The meeting subscription of £2 includes tea or coffee and biscuits.