Posts Tagged ‘Ireland

04
May
21

Michelle And Kimmel

By Nerdy Wonka 110 Comments
Categories: All Videos and Michelle Obama
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18
Mar
19

From The White House To Moneygall

By Nerdy Wonka 110 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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13
Apr
17

President Obama Remembers Dan Rooney

By Nerdy Wonka 123 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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24
Jun
16

The Vice President and President’s Day

By lovelyplains 123 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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Vice President Joe Biden tours the Kilmainham Prison, where many of those who participated in the Easter Rising in 1916 were held, in Dublin, Ireland, June 23, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Vice President Joe Biden tours the Kilmainham Prison, where many of those who participated in the Easter Rising in 1916 were held, in Dublin, Ireland, June 23, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Vice President Joe Biden and grandson Hunter Biden tour one of the cells in Kilmainham Prison, where many of those who participated in the Easter Rising in 1916 were held, in Dublin, Ireland, June 23, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Vice President Joe Biden and grandson Hunter Biden tour one of the cells in Kilmainham Prison, where many of those who participated in the Easter Rising in 1916 were held, in Dublin, Ireland, June 23, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

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Vice President Joe Biden looks at James Joyce manuscripts in the Trinity College Library, in Dublin, Ireland, June 24, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Vice President Joe Biden looks at James Joyce manuscripts in the Trinity College Library, in Dublin, Ireland, June 24, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

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Vice President Joe Biden and his grandchildren tour the Trinity College Library, in Dublin, Ireland, June 24, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Vice President Joe Biden and his grandchildren tour the Trinity College Library, in Dublin, Ireland, June 24, 2016. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

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President Obama’s day started with the designation of Stonewall as a National Monument

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Full Video of President Obama’s speech and panel discussion

24
Jun
16

#Brexit: The Consequences Of Xenophobic Nationalism

By Nerdy Wonka 103 Comments
Categories: All Photos
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https://twitter.com/MazMHussain/status/746196149816569857

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Nigel Farage is a scumbag

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https://twitter.com/Ted_Scheinman/status/746182764500647936

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https://twitter.com/BobbyBigWheel/status/746123611245846529

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https://twitter.com/Lexialex/status/746328436822573060

15
Mar
16

The President And First Lady’s Day

By Nerdy Wonka 148 Comments
Categories: All Photos, All Videos, Joe 'Big Deal' Biden and Michelle Obama
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President Barack Obama smiles as he listens to Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny speak during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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President Barack Obama and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny shake hands during their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House

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U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Kevin O'Malley (L-R) and Vice President Joe Biden look on as Secretary of State John Kerry makes notes as President Barack Obama welcomes Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Barack Obama speaks during his meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) smiles as he waits for reporters to enter the room as he welcomes Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

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President Barack Obama bows his head during a prayer at a St. Patrick's Day luncheon for Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses during his remarks on divisiveness in U.S. politics at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington March 15, 2016. Also pictured are House Speaker Paul Ryan (L) and Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny (2nd L). REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Barack Obama, center, shares a laugh with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., after walking down the steps of the Capitol in Washington, with from Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., left, and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, right. after attending a "Friends of Ireland" luncheon. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

U.S. President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (C) and Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Enda Kenny (R) walk down the U.S. Capitol steps after attending the Friends of Ireland luncheon in Washington March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

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President Barack Obama, walks down the steps of the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 15, 2016, with from left, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, after attending a "Friends of Ireland" luncheon. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

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First Lady Michelle Obama speaks to leading parenting bloggers, online influencers, and content creators in the East Room. The First Lady hosted an event attended by about 150 people addressing the health of the nation’s kids as part of the “Let’s Move!” initiative

Continue reading ‘The President And First Lady’s Day’

13
May
15

ObamaCare: Providing Women The Healthcare They Deserve

By Nerdy Wonka 109 Comments
Categories: All Photos and Articles
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White House: What You Need To Know About The New Contraception Guidance

It is crucial that insurance companies provide all the benefits that women deserve under the Affordable Care Act, at no cost or inconvenience. So this week, the Obama administration took steps to eliminate any ambiguity around the reforms the ACA calls for. Here is what the Administration’s guidance makes clear: Most insurers must cover, without cost-sharing, at least one form of contraception in each of the 18 methods for women that the FDA has identified, including the ring, the patch, intrauterine devices (IUDs), and birth control pills. Additionally, the Administration is making a few other things clear to protect important preventive services:

Insurers must cover preventive screening, genetic counseling, and genetic testing for women who are more likely to have a certain type of gene that puts them at increased risk for breast cancer, if deemed appropriate by their providers. Issuers cannot limit preventive services based on an individual’s sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or recorded gender. This will help ensure that transgender people receive the care they need. If a plan covers dependent children, companies must provide recommended women’s preventive services for those dependent children.

More here

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17
Mar
15

Éirinn go Brách

By Nerdy Wonka 99 Comments
Categories: All Photos, All Videos and Joe 'Big Deal' Biden
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President Barack Obama smiles as he walks down the steps of the Capitol with Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny after attending a “Friends of Ireland” luncheon

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President Barack Obama holds a book of poetry given to him by Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny during their meeting in the Oval Office

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Vice President Joe Biden listens during a meeting between President Barack Obama and Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, on St. Patrick’s Day in the Oval Office

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) (L-R), President Barack Obama and Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny leave after a St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

Barack Obama, Enda Kenny, John Boehner

Boehner and Obama depart with Kenny after a St. Patrick's Day luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington

23
May
14

Rise and Shine

By Chipsticks 113 Comments
Categories: All Photos, All Videos, Articles, Joe 'Big Deal' Biden and Michelle Obama
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On This Day: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Henry Healy, the President’s distant cousin, after arriving in Moneygall, Ireland, May 23, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

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Today

10:30 AM CT: The President departs Chicago

1:30 EDT: Arrives White House

3:0 EDT: Signs H.R. 1209, an act to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the World War II members of the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders for conducting the bombings of Tokyo, and H.R. 685, the American Fighter Aces Congressional Gold Medal Act

3:30 EDT: The President will make a personnel announcement (see below)

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Ah, memories:

And the very lovely news: the video will be in the new Barack Obama Visitor Center in Moneygall – thank you Henry Healy!

(Not sure if the video is watchable in all YouTube regions??)

Remember, if you would like to send any election/inauguration items to Henry for the Visitor Center, just email me and I’ll pass on his address – thanks a gazillion for the wonderful response so far.

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USA Today: Obama’s day: A new budget director, housing secretary

President Obama pulls a Cabinet switch on Friday.

The president will nominate Shaun Donovan, now the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, to be the new director of the Office of Management and Budget.

To replace Donovan as HUD secretary, Obama will nominate San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.

Obama will make the announcements on Friday afternoon, after he returns to the White House from Chicago. The president spent Thursday night in the Windy City after headlining a pair of Democratic fundraisers.

More here

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Sun Times: Obama in Chicago: “I need a Democratic Senate” (Transcript)

At the first of two fundraisers in Chicago on Thursday, President Barack Obama told donors “I need a Democratic Senate” or else his agenda for the last two terms of his term – including immigration reform – will not succeed. Obama said he is worried about people not voting in November:

…… I need a Congress that works. And that means I need a Democratic Senate. And it would be helpful to have a Democratic House.  Now, you all know this so I’m preaching to the choir. But here’s the challenge we have: Democrats are not perfect and it turns out one of our great imperfections is we have a congenital tendency not to vote in midterm elections.

I don’t know what it is. Presidential elections, we’re all in. In 2008, you all went crazy; 2012, you still went crazy. High turnout, we’re motivated, donors are involved, people are active, folks are knocking on doors, people making phone calls.  And then the midterm comes and we fall asleep.

That cannot happen in this election because the stakes are too high. And I say this mindful that in every election somebody says how high the stakes are. But think about what’s at stake right now. Think about it.  If we do not hang on to the Senate and make gains in the House we may not get immigration reform done, which means we could have another three, four years in which we’re being deprived of talent we’re training here in the United States – they go back home and start businesses someplace else. There are Michael Polskys right now in universities that have the possibility of creating businesses here but may end up going back home because we have a broken immigration system. That’s what’s at stake.

More here

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NJ.com: Obamacare enrollment drives down NJ’s uninsurance rate by 38 percent

The first look at the Affordable Care Act’s impact on New Jersey reveals the percentage of uninsured people is on track to reach its lowest level in nearly a quarter of a century, according to a new report released Thursday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The proportion of uninsured adults decreased 38 percent from September to early March, according to the foundation. That decline is likely to accelerate, knowing that many people waited until the last minute to beat the March 30 enrollment deadline.

“These findings suggest that uninsurance in New Jersey is at its lowest level since 1990,” according to the report produced by the foundation and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

The survey results suggest that many concerns about the law — from Gov. Chris Christie hand-off approach to its implementation, to the Obama administration’s troubled launch of the HealthCare.Gov website — did not create insurmountable roadblocks.

More here

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Eugene Robinson: The GOP is still swallowing the tea

What’s happening in the Republican primaries is less a defeat for the tea party than a surrender by the GOP establishment, which is winning key races by accepting the tea party’s radical anti-government philosophy.

Anyone who hopes the party has finally come to its senses will be disappointed. Republicans have pragmatically decided not to concede Senate elections by nominating eccentrics and crackpots. But in persuading the party’s activist base to come along, establishment leaders have pledged fealty to eccentric, crackpot ideas.

More here

Similarly, from Charles Pierce:

This is a mutually co-opting dynamic that is becoming smoother. The “establishment” adopts uniformly extremist policies that would have been unthinkable for a national Republican party two decades ago. The “Tea Party wing” contents itself in the knowledge that the party declines any more to nominate raving loons for election to the national legislature. My guess is that this modus vivendi will provide some empty conflict entertainment over the next two election cycles, but it all will be moon pigeons for the punditocracy to marvel at. The radical conservative philosophy has captured the infrastructure of the Republican party, root and branch, local and national. It’s just wearing shoes again now.

Full post here

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Steve Benen: Why Guantanamo remains open

President Obama has received a fair amount of criticism from the left about the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The president vowed to close the prison, but after five years in office, it remains open.

That’s not for lack of effort. Obama has tried, repeatedly, to pursue the policy that used to enjoy bipartisan support, but Congress – including members of both parties – have placed inflexible restrictions on the administration, preventing progress. In other words, the president hasn’t closed the prison because lawmakers simply won’t let him.

Every time there’s reason to think progress is possible, Congress does what it always does…..

… There’s certainly nothing wrong with being frustrated by the detention facility remaining open, but if you’re blaming the White House, you’re pointing the finger at the wrong end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

More here

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Cue Exploding Heads on the Right:

Bloomberg: Netanyahu Says Obama Got Syria Right

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has some uncharacteristically positive words for one of U.S. President Barack Obama’s most controversial foreign policy initiatives: the deal struck last year to remove chemical weapons from Syria.

I met Netanyahu last Friday afternoon in his bunkerlike office in Jerusalem. During the course of our discussion, I asked him about the famous “red line” crisis – Obama’s last-minute decision to abort a missile strike and instead negotiate the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile – that colors so much of foreign-policy commentary today.

Netanyahu issued what was for him a full-throated endorsement of an Obama initiative, calling it “the one ray of light in a very dark region.”

More here

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Greg Sargent: On immigration, the GOP is Steve King’s party

 It’s not often that GOP Rep. Steve King says anything usefully revelatory on immigration reform. Today, however, he went on to the House floor and, in just over a minute, unmasked the truth about the Republican Party’s position on immigration — a position that House Republican leaders have tried to obscure for months.

King cited Chuck Schumer’s recent claim that the Congressman from Iowa is an “extreme outlier” on the issue. King then helpfullly pointed out that in fact, his position is indistinguishable from the Republican Party position, while deriding the Democratic position as akin to socialism…

More here

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Fernando Espuelas: Boehner lies to Hispanics again

Yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) published an orotund statement predicated on a lie, betting that Hispanic Americans are incapable of distinguishing between fact and fiction.

According to Boehner, President Obama’s recent designation of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico as a national monument — lands with deep historical and archeological significance to Hispanics and Native Americans — demonstrated “the president’s fondness for unilateral action [that] has created widespread doubt among the American people that he and his administration can be counted on to enforce any law he signs, particularly when it comes to securing our nation’s borders and reforming our immigration system.”

Now, to be fair, the Boehner-led House is so chaotic that it resembles more a gang of yammering ruffians than a serious legislative body. So there is a possibility, even a small chance, that Boehner doesn’t even know what is said in his name through his office’s communications office.

Even so, what is the best case scenario? Incompetence instead of deception? Rogue staff? After a litany of objectively dubious statements about immigration reform in the past, it’s hard to give Boehner the benefit of the doubt.

More here

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Text of the First Lady’s remarks here

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Harold Meyerson: The boost that comes from raising the minimum wage

 The standard argument — really, the only argument — against raising the minimum wage is that it will lead to job loss. The argument is beloved by die-hard opponents of raising the wage because it provides them with a veneer, however flimsy, of concern about the welfare of the working poor.

 Economic studies have repeatedly shown that argument to be spurious. Now the latest survey of 350,000 small businesses from Paychex, a payroll provider company, and IHS, a business analysis firm, provides strong indications that the exact opposite may be true.

 In April, the Paychex/IHS survey, which looks at employment in small businesses, found that the state with the highest percentage of annual job growth was Washington — the state with the highest minimum wage in the nation, $9.32 an hour. The metropolitan area with the highest percentage of annual job growth was San Francisco — the city with the highest minimum wage in the nation, at $10.74.

 This suggests that the relationship between a high minimum wage and job creation needn’t be inverse. If anything, it suggests that relationship is direct.

 More here

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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi talks with President of the Harvey Milk Foundation Stuart Milk, next to U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, after they unveiled the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp at its dedication ceremony at the White House

 

 

 Deputy Postmaster General Ronald A. Stroman, fourth from right, and others, applaud during the unveiling ceremony of the Harvey Milk Forever Stamp in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Joining Stroman, from left are, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Stuart Milk, Founder and President, Harvey Milk Foundation, UN Ambassador Samantha Power, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. On the day he would have turned 84 years old, Harvey Milk, the San Francisco supervisor and gay activist gunned down at City Hall in 1978, had a postal stamp in his honor unveiled at the White House

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Link

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Michael Tomasky: The Roots of the GOP’s Race Problem

Thursday is the 50th anniversary of the Great Society and the civil rights push. But if conservative hero Barry Goldwater had had his way, government would have stayed out of it.

…. I like the way today’s conservatives rush to point out, as they will in this comment thread, that most of the opposition to the civil rights bill was Democratic, as I noted above. There’s no denying that. But the more relevant point for today is this: Over the next few years, those people left the Democratic Party. They knew there was no place for them there.

In today’s GOP, however, the successors to the Richard Russells and Harry Byrds have been welcomed with open arms. And Barry Goldwater is not merely one guy among many guys they kind of like from the past. He is conservatism’s great hero! And 1964 is thought of as a shining moment in their movement’s history! And here we are, 50 years later, with the Republican Party looking as if it just might nominate for president a guy (Rand Paul) who once admitted that he’d have opposed the Civil Rights Act and basically was still against it (and Paul is one of the better Republicans on race!). Half a century, and society has changed for the better in amazing ways. But one of our two parties is still dedicated to fighting it.

Full post here

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Three Years Ago Today

Arriving in Dublin, May 23, 2011

 President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama talk with Irish President Mary McAleese and Dr. Martin McAleese during a courtesy call in the Drawing Room at the President’s residence in Dublin, Ireland, May 23, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama holds a hurley as Taoiseach Enda Kenny looks on

Arriving in Moneygall (Photo by Pete Souza)

 First Lady Michelle Obama greets local residents on Main Street in Moneygall (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama greets local residents in Moneygall (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama poses for a photograph with a young girl during a walk along Main Street in Moneygall (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama watches as First Lady Michelle Obama draws a pint at Ollie Hayes’ Pub in Moneygall (Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Obama embraces Liz Sherwood-Randall, Senior Director for European Affairs, at College Green in Dublin, Ireland, May 23, 2011. Sherwood-Randall was blown over by strong winds earlier in the day and injured her wrist (Photo by Pete Souza)

Thousands of people gather at College Green in Dublin, Ireland, to welcome President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, May 23, 2011 (Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

People cheer as President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are introduced during an Irish celebration at College Green in Dublin (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama leave the stage with Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his wife, Fionnuala Kenny, at College Green in Dublin (Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Obama greets a little girl following his remarks at College Green in Dublin (Photo by Pete Souza)

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20
May
14

A Message from Henry Healy

By Chipsticks 142 Comments
Categories: All Photos and Articles
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by @HenryHealy

Hello to all my friends at The Obama Diary!

I hope you are keeping well.

We have great news in Moneygall! A visitor centre named after President Obama, which will focus on his ancestry, will open in two weeks’ time.

It will serve as a welcoming point into the ancestral home of the President and will tell the story of his Irish Ancestry and of that historic trip to Moneygall on 05/23/11 (3 years this Friday).

We will also highlight the other 21 American Presidents with Irish ancestry and many more famous Irish Americans. It will be an Oasis on the M7 Motorway, only 1.5 hours from Dublin.

This centre will be free to visit and I have been tasked with getting memorabilia for the area.

I was wondering if any of The Obama Diary’s followers would like to send us anything connected with President Obama, his 1st election, inauguration and the subsequent election and inauguration, that we could put on display in the centre?

If people are willing to share badges, bumper stickers, newspapers, election posters, etc, we would be delighted.

We understand people would like to keep these items, but maybe if they had duplicates – eg two copies of the same newspaper or magazine – they might consider sending them to me.

(Note from Chips: Anyone who would like to send items to Henry, just email me at TheObamaDiary@gmail.com and I will give you his address)

We want this to be an exciting location with lots for people to see, so hopefully the dedicated The Obama Diary contributors and followers can send something to us for our exhibitions – and when you visit Moneygall, we will ensure you all receive the warmest of welcomes!

Kind Regards to everyone at The Obama Diary, and many thanks,

Henry

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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Henry Healy, the President’s distant cousin, after arriving in Moneygall, Ireland, May 23, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Continue reading ‘A Message from Henry Healy’

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