Irish Joke Lingers As Mayor Marches In Parade (Wall Street Journal)

(AP)

“I thought not only of the historic occasions shared by previous leaders, however. I also carried in my heart the story of a man called James McGinley. He was a lighthouse keeper on the Atlantic west coast of Ireland. Cross the Atlantic, and he was the first and last Irishman, the first and last European. Whatever the weather, he had to keep the light burning.  People depended on him for their lives. James McGinley was my grandfather.”

Enda Kenny, Capitol Hill, March 17, 2011

“But I leave you for now with thoughts of one man who kept his contract, kept his word. His name was James McGinley. He was a lighthouse keeper on our Atlantic west coast. Just a lighthouse keeper. Not famous, not rich, but crucially important. Cross the Atlantic, and he was the first, and last Irishman, the first and last European. In his ordinary life, with his ordinary family, in his ordered lighthouse, he didn’t just keep the light, he kept his contract,. that was his job. Whatever the weather he had to…it was up to him… people depended on him for their lives. You see, James McGinley was my grandfather. “

Enda Kenny, Fine Gael Ard Fheis, March 31, 2007

(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

Thanks SDaedelus

President Barack Obama found out years ago he had an Irish ancestor who fled the potato famine in 1850. He can now claim 28 living relatives who also descended from that Irishman, including a Vietnam veteran, a school nurse and a displeased Arizona Republican.

The president’s newly identified relatives are revealed in a study released to The Associated Press by Ancestry.com, whose genealogists also traced descendants of 23 other Irish passengers on the ship that brought Falmouth Kearney, Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather, to the United States when he was 19.

The survey allowed genealogists to further trace branches in Obama’s family tree and others who arrived on the ship, known as the Marmion, on March 20, 1850.

According to the survey, the passengers’ descendants live in Canada, Syria and throughout the United States. Among Obama’s newly identified relatives is 83-year-old Dorma Lee Reese, of Tucson, Ariz.

“I’m not a Democrat, so I can’t say I clapped,” said Reese, a retired brain-imaging technologist. “I don’t appreciate what he’s done by any means, but I do appreciate that he holds that office.”

Obama’s Irish American Relatives Id’d (Associated Press)

POOR Enda Kenny. Folksy and ruddy-cheeked, the new boy from Dublin was roughed up badly by European leaders during his first outing to Brussels. The Irish prime minister caught the eye of the class bully, Nicolas Sarkozy. Nobody defended the taoiseach; even the head prefect, Angela Merkel, put the boot in.

Yes yes.

But why have him being chased by his wife Fionnula and Brian Hayes TD?

Ireland’s Tax Torment (The Economist)

It’s an incredibly cheeky little number.

Anger Over Walmart Selling Drunken Leprechaun Wine For St Patrick’s Day (Niall O’Dowd, Irish Central)