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US First Lady Michelle Obama greets well wishers in Moneygall, County Offaly, Monday 23 May 2011 Maxwells/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Michelle Obama feels "connection" with Moneygall

The First Lady spoke of what she experienced during her family’s visit to Moneygall in May.

FIRST LADY OF the United States, Michelle Obama, has said she was “surprised” by the connection she felt during her Moneygall visit in May.

Though it is her husband Barack Obama who has the ancestral link to the tiny Co Offaly town, in a recent interview Obama said that she felt many emotions when the couple paid a visit on 23 May.

Reuters reports that when asked by a student during a forum at the University of Cape Town if she felt a kinship to Africa, she said “absolutely”, before adding:

I absolutely felt that connection in Moneygall [and was] a little more surprised by it.
The love, the warmth, the connection, the excitement. That was family, too. And that’s what I want my kids to understand – that your family is Granny in Kisumu, but it’s also your cousin in Moneygall. That is your history.

People thronged the streets for the Obama’s whistle-stop trip to Moneygall, where the couple visited Ollie Hayes’ pub, met some of the President’s relations, and sampled some Guinness.

Read more: A behind the scenes look at Obama’s Ireland visit>
Read more: Barack Obama has a pint with his relatives in Moneygall>

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7 Comments
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    Mute Pilib O Muiregan
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    Jun 28th 2011, 1:11 PM

    and the connection has nothing to do with the millions of irish votes next november, although I hope it works or we left with a neo conseritve jesus freak, us priesdent

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    Mute Tim Hunter
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    Jun 28th 2011, 1:29 PM

    Amazing how the cynical reaction to the Obama visit is also vastly optimistic with regard to the coherency, and easy sway, of the Irish American vote.

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    Mute Barry Williams
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    Jun 28th 2011, 2:23 PM

    Only the Irish in Ireland believe there is an “Irish” vote in the USA. Many of those who claim Irish decent in the USA are actually Ulster Scots Irish and live in the Deep South. They are not Catholic and feel little connection to the mass marketed “Catholic” Irish American .

    So the size of the Catholic Irish American community as a portion of those in the states who claim Irish decent is not as big as we would like to believe.Nor is it is in fact a Irish Protestant

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    Mute Barry Williams
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    Jun 28th 2011, 2:27 PM

    Sorry for some reason.That last sentence went all wrong.

    There is no Irish Lobby in the USA. Not like the Hispanics,African American or Jews, The Irish married into many different races and religions too.

    This Presidents Irish connection is an Irish Protestant. Yet that fact ,by some media was covered up, As they were uncomfortable with the fact a)His ancestors were Protestants b) They weren’t poor famine victims but in fact a small business owner who left Ireland for a better life in the USA

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    Mute Conor O'Riordan
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    Jun 28th 2011, 2:51 PM

    That the majority of the Irish descendants in the US is a statement of complete shite without any basis and is totally and hopelessly incorrect

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    Mute Barry Williams
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    Jun 28th 2011, 2:54 PM

    Can you actually pick 1 thing I said that’s incorrect?? Can you prove anything I said is incorrect.

    Or do you prefer just to disagree for the sake of it?

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    Mute Victoria Hall
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    Jun 28th 2011, 1:18 PM

    Yeah, yeah..We all feel connected to it too!

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