As residents of Moneygall ready themselves to welcome from Barack Obama on 23 May, many hope the visit will bring the Irish village exactly that great-back-grand-father of the President was seeking when he left it 150 years: prosperity.
Must be less than a minute to drive through hometown the ancestral of the Obama, a sleepy and typical rural village whose main attractions are a single pub, a corner store, a post office and a football field. But days before the arrival of the President, the calm that usually covers the village is broken by a blow of brush, beating Stars and Stripes, the squeak of practising Fiddler and the roar of the stylish security team cars of the advance. In Ollie ' Hayes bar, the nerve centre of the visit, local drinkers watching with fascination international camera crews come and go and men in black suits to discuss the final details. (See the first Queen visit means in Ireland).
There is tension and excitement for the villagers aware that the eyes of the world will soon be on their 300 tightknit community. "When the day of Saint Patrick, Obama announced that he was here, he did not only say he had Ireland or in Europe, but that happens to Moneygall," said bar owner Hayes proudly. Although the links between the leader of the world free and blink-and-you'll-miss it village were come light years ago, when Obama was a candidate in 2007, residents as nephew Ollie Hayes Billy Hayes did believe that "human more important in the world" is about the visit.
At this time, local Anglican Rector Canon Stephen Neill was central to find evidence of the ancestry of Obama in the parish registers. "A shudder went behind my back when I saw what was in front of me," said. An American researcher of genealogy Ancestry.com website had bound mother of the Obama in the County of Offaly and had sent Neill Canon in him asking search parish registers. The Rector was discovered that the Kearney family was shoemakers who helped the poor during the Irish potato famine, which lasted from 1845-1852. In 1850, Falmouth Kearney - age of just 19 - made travel difficult across the Atlantic to lay claim to the land. The search for a better life to the United States, he leaves behind a country devastated by a famine which caused the death of a million people and forced another million to emigrate. Kearney married and is now a farmer in Indiana, their seven children - whose daughter Mary Anne, the mother of Obama Stanley Dunham grandmother. Many former Presidents of the United States claimed Irish roots, including John f. Kennedy and Ronald Regan. But Obama Irish connections make him unique as the "first President of the African-American-Irish", says O'Neill Canon. (See pictures of the tree of the family of Barack Obama).
Distant cousin of Henry Healy's Obama think that the President owes his oration skills his Irish ancestry. In the role of the Healy as the spokesperson for the family, the local accountant became the star of an international Irish tourism advertising campaign and is always "surrealist" that he is bound to the President of the United States. Healy will be one of the many of distant relatives who will meet Obama during his brief visit discrete village - entry is limited to the local and invited sections. Tens of thousands of others will be hoped to catch a glimpse of President - which is very admired by many in Ireland - a mass demonstration in Dublin in the evening. Written in the Irish Independent newspaper a few days ago, the Irish Minister Enda Kenny captured the high view in which the President is required: visit "Obama home" will be "an accomplishment of the American dream." A dream, that, on his election, has regained much of its appeal. ?
Cousin Healy described the visit as an "escape hatch" of the perpetual bad news story of the crisis devastating financial Ireland, which has left many residents of Moneygall without employment. The village, which was one of the main areas of rest for travellers between the cities of Dublin and Limerick, has been treated by a new economic crisis last December when it was bypassed by a motorway. But local entrepreneurs hope that travel of the President can reverse the downward trend. A shop of souvenirs, sale of postcards Obama, plates and cups has opened next to the location of the former home of his parents. The Office of local station has already given an of brisk gifts of novelty for Irish curious passers-by. Young businessman Billy Hayes opened a store for the sale of t-shirts with slogans such as "Obama Irish Pub" and "what is the Barack Craic?"-"craic", which rhymes with Barack, being Irish slang for gossip. And then there is a rest area the highway being built on the outskirts of the village - million-euro developers hope to call it instead of Obama. (See more information about the Moneygall in 10 ways people top time in the world have cashed on Obama).
Recent cosmetic changes to the village in country Offaly were considerable, but Canon O'Neill believes that the real change "is in the minds of the people." Visit of Obama gave them "self belief" and the feeling that they have something will worthwhile to offer that "reap rewards in the future", he said. The President should spend less than two hours to Moneygall in his Irish stopover one day - but the brief return of a long-lost son will leave a footprint that could last for generations.
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