At the first stop of his six-day Europe trip, President Barack Obama—the son of a Kenyan father and Irish-American mother—visited his ancestral homeland of Ireland on Monday.
After speaking with Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny and dropping by Moneygall, the birthplace of Obama’s great-great-great grandfather, Obama addressed a crowd of up to 60,000 people at College Green in Dublin late Monday afternoon.
“My name is Barack Obama of the Moneygall Obamas,” Obama said to the cheering crowd. “And I’ve come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way.”
Obama, who is on the trip with first lady Michelle Obama, said Ireland and the United States are bound by “history and friendship and shared values.”
“And that’s why I’ve come here today, as an American president, to reaffirm those bonds of affection.”
In response to the current economic crisis Ireland faces, Obama said the country had encountered trials before, which it had endured and overcome.
“We are people, the Irish and Americans, who never stop imagining a brighter future, even in bitter times” Obama said. “This little country, that inspires the biggest things—your best days are still ahead.”
“If anybody ever tells you that your problems are too big, or your challenges are too great, that we can’t do something, that we shouldn’t even try—think about all that we’ve done together.”
“And America will stand by you—always,” Obama said.
Obama emphasized that the two countries want to continue to “strengthen the bonds of trade and commerce.”
“We are rooting for Ireland’s success and we’ll do everything that we can to be helpful on the path to recovery,” Obama said.
In an allusion to his efforts to help settle the decades of conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians, Obama paid tribute to the success of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
“How inspired we have been by the progress that’s been made in Northern Ireland, because it speaks to the possibilities of peace and people in longstanding struggles being able to reimagine their relationships,” he said.
In Moneygall, Obama was greeted like a long lost son when the motorcade carrying him and his wife pulled to a stop in the village.
In the village, a local resident, 28-year-old Rob Lewis, said he is here to see Obama—“our long-lost cousin.” Obama spent some time at a local pub with Henry Healy, a distant cousin, according to Reuters.
Due to a volcanic ash cloud from Iceland the president was forced to leave for his next stop, London, a day early.
Obama will visit England, France, and Poland, and is expected to have talks on issues such as Afghanistan and Pakistan, the killing of Osama bin Laden, the global economy, and the “Arab Spring” uprisings.
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