“He does not just speak about the American Dream. He is the American Dream.” The Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny proudly declared before a jubilant crowd in Dublin yesterday, celebrating the visit of President Barack Obama.
This trip, unlike official state visits by U.S. presidents in the past, was highly anticipated by the people of Ireland — not just the political elite. It was especially endearing to the residents of the small town of Moneygall, which boast a population of only 350. During the trip, President Obama proudly embraced the ancestral home of his maternal great, great, great grandfather who left in 1850 to pursue a better life in America.
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What is most beautiful about this particular visit was the often non-verbal adulation that the president was not just of Irish descent — but black as well. And if Obama’s state visit has taught us one important lesson, let it be summarized in the simple phrase: we are all one.
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The sentiment was best described by a young Irish woman in a spontaneous interview NBC’s Norah O’Donnell, in which, though delighted, she admits surprise of Obama’s Irish roots because, “He doesn’t actually look like anyone in Moneygall.” A group of young children shared their innocent excitement with O’Donnell saying, “Barack Obama is the most famous person on earth.”
Like so many immigrants with similar stories, Obama’s Irish ancestor, Falmouth Kearney, escaped dire poverty at the height of Ireland’s Great Famine in the 19th Century. It is part of the great American legacy that brought so many Irish-Americans to these shores. Even beginning in the 17th Century most Irish immigrants arrived in American ports as indentured servants because they had no other options — and servitude was the best way to afford the long trip across the Atlantic. Once here, most took unskilled jobs in port cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Others saved money and moved inland to the Midwest hoping to create opportunity. Obama’s maternal ancestors eventually settled in Kansas, where his mother was born.
The great Irish Diaspora can serve as a mirror to the Great African Diaspora, in which so many traveled so far — and in the process redefined identity and rediscovered the meaning of family.
The warm welcome from the Irish government and its people — complete with parades and elaborate performances by the nation’s most prominent figures in media and the arts — serves as a stark contrast to the often visceral, racially-tinged American political rhetoric that has become commonplace in the conservative right’s efforts to frame President Obama as illegitimate. It was only last month, that Obama released his long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii, in an effort to finally silence rumor, innuendo and conspiracy theories that have persisted for over two years: suggesting the president was not a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The controversy found new life during Donald Trump’s now short-lived, faux-run for the White House. Nearly every major Republican figure had chimed in on the subject, many using it for political expediency to win cheap points and appeal to the worst elements on the far-right, and within the Tea Party movement.
Ireland and its people, however, embraced this American president as their own. Songs have been written for him, houses and streets painted in his honor, and cafes opened in his name.
The president’s trip, which included meetings with the Irish President and Prime Minister, was less political and more an opportunity to reaffirm Ireland’s rich history and immeasurable contributions to American society. But it was also a strategic visit, particularly in light of the fact that Ireland has been one of the smaller European nations most adversely affected by the 2008 bank failures and housing market crisis.
In fact, Ireland has been forced to borrow nearly $100 billion from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Recovery has been slow, if non-existent, and the stipulations of the loans require the Irish government to slash thousands of public jobs. This leaves the financial future of many families in doubt, and serves as a warning sign to other nations like Portugal, Spain and Greece, who are all still struggling to find economic solutions to steer them back to growth.
President Obama in his speech before a crowd of thousands in the streets of Dublin highlighted the friendship of the two nations, reminding people that like him, Presidents Kennedy and Reagan also shared Irish heritage, and that eight of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were Irish-American as well.
It seems serendipitous that the man who occupies the Oval Office is a descendant of two ethnic groups well versed in the politics of discrimination. Though African-American history is well taught, many people may not know that Irish-Americans suffered harsh conditions in employment and housing due to their poverty and Catholicism. Signs that read “No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs” were common throughout England, and “No Irish Need Apply” became the similar code words in the States throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries. As a result, John F. Kennedy’s election was a watershed moment in American politics, because it represented the changing tide in socio-political and religious thought. Obama consequently inherited a similar legacy: embodying the end of racial barriers to the highest office in the land.
As the 2012 election progresses, the rhetoric between both parties will undoubtedly spark harsh, polemic debate characteristic of our beloved Fightin’ Irish. Hopefully, a civil discourse can replace the divisive hate-mongering that has plagued this presidency for far too long.
