Moneygall

The village of Moneygall (population 298) is an unassuming place on the main N7 Dublin-Limerick road, but it was thrust into the spotlight in May 2011 when President Obama paid a visit to check on his ancestors. His great-great-great grandfather came from the village and his maternal ancestors lived and worked in the Moneygall area more than 160 years ago. They worshipped at Templeharry church, 4 mi from the village. President Obama's late mother, Ann Dunham, was a descendant of Falmouth Kearney, who was Obama's great-great-great-grandfather, and who left the village for New York in 1850 to eventually settle in Ohio. Kearney's birthplace was thought to have been demolished, but researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered the house—albeit substantially rebuilt—still standing just yards from Ollie Hayes' Bar on the main street. The bar has an "Obama Corner" and on a Thursday evening you may see the Obama Set Dancers strutting their Cashel and Ballycommon sets and practicing a mix of jigs, reels, polkas, and hornpipes. During his visit, the President met Henry Healy, a bookkeeper for a local plumbing firm, who admitted to a somewhat distant connection—he is Barack Obama's eighth cousin.