In a reversal of how U.S. residents celebrate St. Patrick’s Day — when nearly everyone claims Irish ties — an Irish band became a sensation for asserting “There’s No One as Irish as Barack O’Bama.”
Genealogists traced the president’s maternal family roots to the shoemaker Fulmouth Kearney in Moneygall, population 300, in central Ireland.
About a year ago, Limerick musicians Ger Corrigan and his brothers, Brian and Donncha, confirmed Obama’s ancestral ties through Moneygall cleric Stephen Neill.
It took 20 minutes to write the song that begins, “You don’t believe me, I hear you say / But Barack’s as Irish, as was JFK.” The lyrics invoke Neill, Yokahama, Hawaii, Kenya, “Riverdance” and Ollie Hayes’ Moneygall pub, now a hotspot for tourists.
The song became a sensation on the Internet. Obama’s staff requested a copy during the 2008 campaign. The Corrigan brothers performed it in January’s inaugural parade and at one of the inaugural balls.
“Mr. Obama passed us as we played the song, and gave us a great wave as he walked some of the parade route,” said Ger Corrigan, who estimates the brothers have performed the song 200 times in “at least five countries.”
“The international appeal is amazing. Schoolkids from all over the world have written to us and said the song was discussed in their classrooms in Australia, Africa, China, Brazil, Argentina and Iceland.”
Hear it at: /watch?v=4Xkw8ip43Vk
Lyrics: /no_one_as_irish_as_barrack _obama.html
