Obama’s Irish Roots

When Irish author and filmamaker, Gabriel Murray, found the lost family tomb of Bishop John Kearney, President Obama’s great-uncle, in an ancient Cathedral in Ireland in March 2009, he set off an international media frenzy. The discovery was likened to the plot of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code in the international press and the hundreds of sites, which appeared on Google covering the find. Anne Dunham, Obama’s mother, was the grand daughter of Mary Ann Kearney who was a direct descendant of the Bishop in the Kilkenny tomb. This widened the search for Obama’s Irish roots, which originated in Shinrone, Moneygall in Ofally and Cashel in Tipparary. They went even further back to the ancient Kingdom of Thomond where Obama’s roots had had links to the High Kings of Ireland, martyrs and biblical scholars.