Obama’s Irish Roots

RESEARCH.

PART 1

OBAMA'S IRISH ROOTS

It’s coming through a crack in the wall;

on a visionary flood of alcohol;

from the staggering account

of the Sermon on the Mount

which I don't pretend to understand at all.

It's coming from the silence

on the dock of the bay,

from the brave, the bold, the battered

heart of Chevrolet:

Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Leonard Cohen-Democracy.

CHAPTER 1

OBAMA'S LOST KINGDOM

For a while we lingered there,

A doubt that ever smouldered in the hearts

Of those great Lords and Barons of his realm

Flashed forth and into war: for most of these,

Colleaguing with a score of petty kings,

Made head against him, crying, `Who is he

That he should rule us? who hath proven him.

Alfred Lord Tennyson-Idylls of the Kings

KINGDOM OF THOMOND.

The Kearnies, (Obama’s ancestors) belonged to The Dal Cais or the Dalcassian clan. They were a dynastic group of related clans located in north Munster in the west of Ireland, who rose to national political prominence in the early medieval era. They are desceded from Cormac Cas. Their stronghold was in Killahoe in County Clare. It is from here that Obama's ancestors came before they moved east to Ofally and Tipparary.

In early historic Ireland the Dal Cais did have not have much power but during the seventh and eighth centuries they moved north to Clare and annexed the kingdom of Thomond, previously part of Connaght and later part of Munster.

Thomond was to remain the heartland of the Kearney clan for hundreds of years. It is especially associated with the family of Ó’Briain, who reigned as its kings from the 930s to 1543 and from 1543 to the present day as Baron Inchiquin. The current incumbent (18th Baron Inchiquin) is Conor O'Brien, a thirty-second generation descendant of Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, 963-1014. He is also known simply as The O'Brien, and is Chief of the Name, Prince of Thomond. The Dail Cais was made up of 160 notable families, among them are; (See full list Appendix.)

Ahern,

Blair, Boland, Booth, Brady, O’Casey,

Clancey, Connolly, Considine, Cosgrave, Crowe, Kennedy, Lucas, Quinn Regan, Thynne, Tubridy, O’Grady These clan names belong to distinguished actors, Presidents, Prime Ministers and writers; Bertie Ahern-Prime Minister of Ireland; Tony Blair-Prime Minister of England. Harry Boland-Republican activist in Ireland’s war of Independence, Cherie Booth-(Barrister and wife of Tony Blair); Paul Brady-(Irish musician), Sean O’ Casey -(Irish

Playwright), Tommy Clancey- (Irish traditional musician), James Connolly- (Irish Republican Leader), Paddy Constandine (actor), Cosgrove - (Prime Minister of Ireland) Russel Crowe-(Irish/Australian actor) John F Kennedy- (President of the United State's), George Lucas- (Irish/American -Film Director), Anthony Quinn-(Actor), Ronald Regan- (President of the United States)Alexander Thynne- Lord Bath-(Novelist and painter), Ryan Tubridy- (TV Presenter), Muhammed Ali – O’Grady (Boxer), Barack Obama Dunham-Kearney-(44th President of the United States.)

The diocese of Killaloe, which was first established at the Synod of Rathbresail in 1111, is often given as the first reference, with the boundaries of the ancient Kingdom of Thomond. At that time Killaloe was an area held by the Dál Cais.

There are frequent references to Thomond in the Irish Annals beginning in the latter 11th century but as a separate entity representing all of northern Munster. An entry for the year 1118 seems to mark a milestone event. In that year, a treaty at Glanmire divided the Kingdom of Munster into northern and southern halves, a division apparently running near the border of modern counties Limerick and Cork.

With this 12th century division of Munster into two parts, Thomond included the area about the diocese of Killaloe.

Rock of Cashel

Cashel, in County Tipperary, is home to one of Ireland's great historical sites, the Rock of Cashel, which was once the seat of the Kings of Munster It was visited by St. Patrick in 450. He preached here at the royal fort and converted Aengus, King of Munster.

The O’Kearneys obtained the crozier or staff that belonged to St Patrick; such was their position of importance. They were located in large farming

Estates of up to a thousand acres in five areas of the kingdom of Thomond:

1. Cashel

2. Ballyduagh

3. Knockanglass

4. Clonbrogan

5. Cloneen.

In Cashel they built a castle known today as the O’Kearney Palace Hotel. Kearney of the cross or O’Kearney Crux lived in Ballyduagh. It was this Kearney clan, which held the cross of St Patrick. This demonstrated the high regard in which the clan were held with the King of Munster and the high clerical office they held in the kingdom.

The Kearneys over many generations became closely associated with the Kings of Cashel in the county of Tipperary, which was part of Thomond. One of the clan member's, Brian Boru, was crowned King of Ireland in the tenth century. On examination of the rare books debt of Trinity College, I went in search of records of the Kearney's of Cashel. What I discovered was a long line of Kearneys who held a series of illustrious positions in Cashel. Nicholas O'Kearney, who died in 1460, held a number of extensive estates, and his tomb is to be found in the Rock of Cashel.

William Michael Kearney, who was born more than a century later, in 1588, is known as the 'Chieftain of Fethard,' in County Tipperary. His eldest son, Philip, who died in 1657, was Clerk of the Supreme Council of Confederated Catholics at Kilkenny, while his seventh son was father of John Kearney, Secretary of State to James 11, whom he accompanied to France. King James, a few months before the Battle of the Boyne, appointed Patrick Kearney to the office of Controller of the Pipe and Second Engrosser of the Great Roll of the Exchequer of Ireland.

Also to be considered are the actual relationships of the Kearneys of Cashel who seemed over the generations to reach high political and church positions. There are approximately thirteen generations between Brian Boru, High King of Ireland and the Cashel Kearneys; there is a lineage which begs to be examined and explored. In conclusion, the 44th president of the United States, Barack Obama, has the blood of the high King of Ireland running in his veins.

North of Tipperary, just over the border into County Offally, there also lay part of the Kingdom of Thomond which found itself in the area of Shinrone; it is from here that Obama’s ancestors originated. This indicates that the Kearneys cousin's were located in this area. The break in the historical records between the Tipperary Kearney’s and the Ofally Kearneys was because of a momentous event that occurred in Ireland, which devastated and almost destroyed the entire family.

CHAPTER 2

IRELAND'S BRAVEHEART

Those who endure to the end will be saved.

St. Matthew, 13/24.

On researching in the old manuscript section of Trinity Library, Dublin, I found a William Kearney who had studied at Cambridge and trained as a printer. There is some suggestion and association with the political and academic family from Cashel, possibly a brother or cousin, another of Obama's distant cousins.

William Kearney was involved in the translation and printing of the first Irish version of the New Testament, which was translated in 1602 from Greek into Irish. William (d.1628) became Archbishop of Tuam who was a native of Kilkenny and his name appears in the foundation of Trinity College, Dublin on 3rd March 1592. It was while at that College that William took up the work of translating The New Testament – "Tiomna Nuadh" into Irish.

This work was originally undertaken by Nicolas Walsh, Chancellor of Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin and later Bishop of Ossory, in Kilkenny. Bishop Kearney was murdered in 1585. After his death the translation was continued by William Kearney, who also translated and published the first Irish Catechism, printed in Dublin in 1571. William had entered Trinity as a fellow in 1596.

An important part of Trinity College, Dublin's policy was the promotion of the study of Irish among the undergraduates. They undertook instruction of the 'native' students in the Irish language, and arranged for a lecture in Irish and Irish prayers. The conversion of the natives of the country from Roman Catholicism by preachers who spoke their own tongue was a cherished scheme.

A printing font of Irish type was procured from Queen Elizabeth in 1571 and later sent to Dublin. In 1573 Walsh set about translating the New Testament into Irish.

In this work, Trinity College took part. The types and press sent over by Elizabeth were set up in the College.

There were many other members of the Kearney family who joined the Catholic Church. One, in particular,

stands out for his sacrifice for his faith.

When I first began my research for Obama's ancestors I visited Obama's Kearney family homeland in Shinrone in West Ofally. In Saint Mary's Anglican Church. I examined an ancient book which recorded all the births and marriages of the Kearney family and had begun in the late 1600’s. Why were there no family links between the Kearney's of Tipparary and Ofally? They were clearly cousins as the two counties were part of the ancient Kingdom of Thomond.

Something devastating must have occurred that had almost wiped out the entire family. They had gone from owning thousands of acres of land to tenants within ten years. In the previous Chapter, I explored them. They had been close supporters of the Kings of Munster at Cashel. They were the most powerful Gaelic family in the region, holding titles, which allowed them the addition of the aristocratic Gaelic O which was added to the Kearney name. Family members held high positions in the Catholic Church of bishops and priests while their lay members were merchants, alderman and burgesses of the town of Cashel.

It was the extraordinary political developments in England, which had created storm clouds on the horizion for the Kearneys. As they lived out their lives news came to them in Jan 1649 that Charles 11 had been executed by Oliver Cromwell. On August 15th Cromwell arrived in Ireland, beginning a ruthless and destructive conquest. In Sept 1652, the laws of England came into operation in Ireland. On 6th Jan 1653, the civil authorities in Ireland issued an order that all Catholic priests should leave the country within twenty days.

Those who did not leave were to be found guilty of treason and those who abetted them were guilty of

felony. This put the bishops and priests of the Kearney family in an intolerable and impossible position. One of them was John Kearney, (Obama’s distant cousin) who was born in Cashel in 1619. John had studied to be a Franciscian monk.

The Franciscians in Cashel had been supressed in

1540 but had re-established themselves in a private residence by 1618. John had learnt Christian doctrine

from the monks in his own home. The Jesuits, under John’s uncle, Barnaby Kearney, had opened a school there and it was there that John attended. Joseph Everard, the head friar, was consulted about his future in the Catholic Church.

John, along with Joseph Sall, was advised to study at the Francis Friary in Kilkenny. They arrived in Kilkenny circa 1638 and remained there for three years. (The Franciscian Friary is in ruins today and is now on the lands of Smithwick’s Brewery.)

After their studies in Kilkenny, they travelled via Waterford, Bristol to Louvain in Belgium. There they studied at St Anthony’s College, which had been founded by the Irish Franciscians in 1607.

On 20th Sept 1644 John was ordained as a Franciscian priest in the parish church of St. Catherine in Brussells. Shortly afterwards he left for Ireland.

Of the coast of Bristol Cromwell’s men captured his ship. He was taken to London tied to a horse and escorted by a group of soldiers. He was then imprisioned and tortured. These tactics proved unsuccessful; he was subsequently imprisoned in a deep dungeon and almost starved to death. During the interrogation, he declared that he was a Catholic priest and a Franciscian Friar. He spent three months in a dungeon and, after a court case, he was sentenced to death.

On the night before his execution, he escaped to France with the help of an English Catholic.

There he travelled via Calais to Wexford. After four years of exile from Ireland, he was finally re-united with his family. From 1645 to 1647 he taught philosophy at a Friary in Cashel and preached to the faithful. He received requests from ministers at the friary at Waterford. Cromwell arrived in Dublin in 1649. John was advised to go into hiding. The Catholics of Leinster and Munster were in immediate danger. Cromwell reached Waterford on 24th November and demanded the surrender of the City. John did not

expect mercy. Six weeks before on 11th October in Wexford a large number of laity and seven Franciscans had been executed.

An emergency meeting was called at Clonmacnoise by the Catholic bishops of Ireland from 4th to 13th December. The city of Waterford surrendered on August 6th 1650. John Kearney was re-appointed guardian of the friary in Carrick on Suir about ten miles from Waterford. He had a chance to escape to Europe but refused to leave. From then on he was a hunted Catholic priest and on Cromwell's death list. All Catholic clergy now were in hiding across Ireland while others escaped to the continent. By October 1650, the Catholics had lost all their churches in Kilkenny, Fethard and Clonmel. John's friends pleaded with him to escape before it was too late but he refused to go.

He travelled secretly between towns and administered to the sacrements and mass by day and night.

Cromwell had returned to England on May 26th. On 4th October 1650 he had appointed a Comissioner of Parliament, Edmund Ludlow who was regarded as even been more extreme than Cromwell. They divided Ireland into precints, each under the control of a military govenor. One precint was in Clonmel and it was there that the total of all the the captured priests were tried and executed.

Cromwell instituted the Act of Settlement in 1652.

All Catholic lands were to be taken; this was clearly legalised theft. Irish Catholics who had lived on their lands for hundreds of years became either homeless or tenants overnight. In one sweep of the pen and the sword Cromwell returned Ireland back to serfdom and slavery to the English landlords. The Catholic Kearneys lost all their lands with immediate effect.

On 6th January, the comissioners gave all Catholic priests twenty days to leave the country. This proclamation was published on 21st January with a

reward of five pounds for their capture. This also put considerable pressure on John Kearney’s relatives

not to harbour him as hiding a priest was also a crime under the new law. At the beginning of March John Kearney was arrested by a Captain Wilmer and

bound and locked up in a gaol in Clonmel, Tipparary. On the orders of Colonel Jerome Sankey he was tortured. In the gaol there were other priests who comforted him. All the captured priests were taken before the court whichwas presided over by Sankey.

John Kearney was accused of celebrating mass and adminstering the sacraments and having strengthened the Catholics in their faith in defiance of the law.

Kearney stated that it was his duty to perform the sacraments. This enraged Colonel Sankey who immediately condemmed John Kearney to death but banished the other priest from the country.

Back in jail, John prepared himself for death. He put away his lay clothes and put on his religious habit.

On Friday 21st March, clad in a Franciscian habit, John Kearney, age thirty four, was led to the scaffold in Martyr Lane, Market Street Clonmel.

A crowd of Catholics and Puritians were gathered. The Puritians jeered at him. When he arrived at the scaffold, he knelt down with tears in his eyes and prayed.

He climbed the steps and got permission from the commander of the company of soliders to address the crowd. He told them that he had been captured, imprisoned, charged and sentenced to death because he had celebrated Mass and administered the sacraments. He said that he had admitted this during his short trial and that he had publicly professed his faith in the Catholic Church as the one true church and willingly would die for this relying on his faith and confidence in Christ. Then John Kearney stepped forward at 11am, a noose was placed around his neck and he fell through a trapdoor. Sankey gave permission to Kearney's friends to remove the body, which they brought to Cashel, and buried him in the chapter hall of the Franciscian Friary.

Irish actor, Richard Harris portrayed Cromwell in the film. I always considered this a rather strange role for a Limerick men as Cromwell had put siege to the city were Harris was born. It was a film of an ill-conceived potrait of a zealous benovelent Cromwell called by God to save his people. It could not have e been further from the truth; by the time Cromwell had left Ireland, he had destroyed the religious and social fabric of Irish society.

The Irish overnight, along with the Kearney's, were no longer land-owners, but more like slaves as their land was stolen from beneath their feet. The Kearneys, who had owned over four thousand acres of land, were lucky to rent four or five acres from their new English land owners.

The fame and sacrifice of John Kearney, the martyr, spread across Europe with