From The White House To Moneygall

In 2011, I visited the tiny town of Moneygall and got to walk around in the house where my great-great-great grandf… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

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Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 17, 2019

A Message from Henry Healy

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)

A Brief This and That

From Henry Healy to TOD:

I got to meet with the President yesterday and I wanted to share with you this drawing that I presented him with. It’s a pencil drawing of the president in front of his ancestral home and the White House. It was by Brian Fogarty a school teacher from Co Tipperary now living in Galway.

Kind Regards,

Henry Healy

Thank you Henry – love that drawing, it’s beautiful.

(I asked Henry if his head hurt today, he said “it’s coming ’round” – so, good news!)

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Next up:

2:05 PM EDT President Obama and PM Netanyahu Hold a Press Conference

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CNN and CBS are showing a lot of live streaming from Israel today, so keep checking in

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ENORMOUS thanks to LovelyPlains for this morning’s Rise and Shine – it was just ** magnificent **

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Will be back a little later with photos and videos from Israel, just getting some work done – see ya then.

Rise and Shine

President Obama talks with PM Tusk of Poland in the private residence of the White House, Sept. 17, 2009. NSC Chief of Staff Denis McDonough is in the background (Photo by Pete Souza)

Washington Post: President Obama will name deputy national security adviser Denis McDonough, a longtime trusted aide, as his new White House chief of staff Friday, officials said.

McDonough, 43, has spent the past two years as the No. 2 official in the National Security Council, helping guide some of the administration’s most high-profile decisions, including the military drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the response to earthquakes in Haiti and Japan and the aftermath of the terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya last fall.

Obama considers McDonough one of his “closest and most trusted advisors for nearly a decade,” a White House official said.

More here

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Today:

11:0: V.P. Biden Speaks on the Administration’s Efforts to Reduce Gun Violence (Richmond, Virginia) – White House live (audio only), CNN

12:10: President Obama makes a personnel announcement

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GOPolitico: The White House will also announce several other promotions Friday, including moving communications director Dan Pfeiffer to the job of senior adviser, and shifting deputy communications director Jennifer Palmieri into Pfeiffer’s old job. Pfeiffer’s move comes as David Plouffe, a longtime Obama political adviser, plans to leave the White House this month.

Other senior-level moves include:

Rob Nabors – Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy
Tony Blinken – Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor
Danielle Gray – Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary
Katy Kale – Assistant to the President for Management and Administration
Lisa Monaco – Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (upon confirmation of John Brennan as DCIA)
Miguel Rodriguez –Assistant to the President and Director of Legislative Affairs
David Simas – Assistant to the President and Deputy Senior Advisor for Communications and Strategy

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President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give a joint interview at the White House on Friday afternoon to CBS News’ Steve Kroft, for broadcast Sunday on “60 Minutes.”

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Steve Benen: We don’t yet know exactly why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) gave up on ambitious reforms of filibuster rules. After months of voicing support for sweeping changes, it’s possible Reid just didn’t have the votes from his own caucus to pursue bold reforms through the “constitutional option.”

Whatever the reasoning, however, it’s important that folks understand that when Reid says protecting the filibuster is necessary to keep the Senate from being like the House, he’s wrong…..

More here

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Greg Sargent: Now that the smoke has cleared from the wreckage of yesterday’s filibuster reform debacle, what’s next for those who want to fix our broken Senate? There is no denying that yesterday’s outcome was a terrible disappoint for those who still hold out hope for functional government. At the same time, there are some silver linings…..

More here

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President Obama attends a Sandy Hook interfaith vigil at Newtown High School, Dec. 16, 2012 (Photo by Pete Souza)

NYT: The White House has decided to circumvent Capitol Hill as it concentrates its gun-control efforts on speeches and other public appearances by President Obama and Vice President Biden outside of Washington, according to officials with knowledge of the plans.

With Obama’s gun agenda dependent on centrist Democratic senators who are nervous about their reelection prospects, the administration has calculated that the president is better off helping to build a groundswell of popular support within the lawmakers’ states rather than negotiating directly with them, officials said.

More here

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NYT: The White House delivered a strong message to Wall Street on Thursday, taking the unusual step of choosing two former prosecutors as top financial regulators.

But translating that message into action will not be easy, given the complexities of the market and Wall Street’s aggressive nature.

At a short White House ceremony, President Obama named Mary Jo White, the first female United States attorney in Manhattan, to run the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Obama also renominated Richard Cordray as the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a position he has held for the last year under a temporary recess appointment without Senate approval.

With the appointments, the president showed a renewed resolve to hold Wall Street accountable for wrongdoing, extolling his candidates’ records as prosecutors.

More here

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President  Obama greets a local resident on Main Street in Moneygall, Ireland, May 23, 2011 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Irish Examiner: The US President is to be immortalised in the birthplace of his ancestors with the Barack Obama Plaza in Moneygall, Co Offaly.

Around €6m is being invested in the plaza by Supermac’s founder Pat McDonagh, to commemorate the visit by the President and his wife Michelle in 2011.

It will also see the establishment of the Barack Obama Community Facility, where exhibitions of historic and current material marking the relationship between Moneygall and the United States will go on display.

This is the single biggest investment on the Offaly/Tipperary border region in decades and will bring 60 new jobs to the area, as well as 75 jobs during the construction phase.

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Morning!

Hey, allow me share my giddy glee

I somehow missed this video from May 2012, but thanks to Meta saw it today – that’s our Ireland video (from 1:38), in President Obama’s Moneygall ancestral hooooooooooome!!!!!

Sorry, a bit excited. 😕

If you can’t see the video, try this:

Okay, move on 🙂

green day

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny came to Washington bearing a few special gifts for President Barack Obama.

Among them, an official certificate of Irish heritage. “These are rare, as rare as the man himself,” Kenny said, presenting the document to Obama at a White House reception.

The president, without missing a beat, said: “This will have a special place of honor, alongside my birth certificate.”

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First Lady Michelle Obama gestures as she pretends to pour a pint of beer alongside Fionnuala Kenny

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Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley performs with his Celtic rock band O’Malley’s March during a St. Patrick’s Day Reception at the White House

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President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, and others applaud as Enda Kenny, Taoiseach of Ireland, is introduced during a St. Patrick’s Day lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 20, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

o’bama! henry! ollie! (say hello to henry & stephen neill in the comments)

President Barack Obama visits the Dubliner, an Irish pub in Washington, D.C., with his Irish cousin, Henry Healy, center, and Ollie Hayes, a pub owner in Moneygall, Ireland, on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17 (Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama celebrates St. Patrick’s Day at the Dubliner Irish pub in Washington, March 17

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in touch

President Obama visiting Gabrielle Giffords, January 2011.

Thank you Loriah – the photo is a screen-grab from:

Original video here

Thank you Halo

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A visitor looks at photographs taken during fieldwork in Indonesia by S. Ann Dunham, President Barack Obama’s late mother, during an exhibition at a gallery at the East West Center on the University of Hawaii at Manoa Campus, November 9

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President Barack 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

Oh, any excuse to take a trip down this memory lane:

Today is President Mary McAleese’s last day in office – she served 14 years (14!) as Irish president.

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Sun Times: Today, in her keynote address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Business Steps Up: Hiring our Heroes event, First Lady Michelle Obama announced that the International Franchise Association (IFA) which represents 1,100 franchises has committed to hiring 80,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014. 5,000 jobs of this commitment are promised to wounded warriors.

Mrs. Obama also announced that the Military Spouse Employment Partnership (MSEP) – which Dr. Jill Biden helped launch at the Chamber of Commerce last summer and which includes nearly 100 companies and organizations – has committed to employ 20,000 military spouses. These organizations include companies like Microsoft, Home Depot and Citi and franchises like UPS, Guidant Financial and Data Doctors. Together, the commitment by the International Franchise Association and the Military Spouse Employment Partnership represents a commitment to hire 100,000 veterans, wounded warriors and military spouses by 2014.

More Here

First lady Michelle Obama shakes hands after speaking at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce fourth annual event on hiring military veterans, Nov. 10

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Andrew Sullivan

Thanks rikyrah

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Statement by the President on the State Department’s Keystone XL Pipeline Announcement

November 10, 2011

I support the State Department’s announcement today regarding the need to seek additional information about the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal.  Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns have been raised through a public process, we should take the time to ensure that all questions are properly addressed and all the potential impacts are properly understood.

The final decision should be guided by an open, transparent process that is informed by the best available science and the voices of the American people.  At the same time, my administration will build on the unprecedented progress we’ve made towards strengthening our nation’s energy security, from responsibly expanding domestic oil and gas production to nearly doubling the fuel efficiency of our cars and trucks, to continued progress in the development of a clean energy economy.

catching up

Political Humor

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Robert Shrum (The Week): The GOP’s desperate hunt for anyone but Mitt Romney – Herman Cain unravels. Rick Perry stumbles. And Republicans keep praying that someone will rescue them from the flip-flopping Romney.

… Maybe tea is a hallucinogen; maybe the GOP is demented – and it will nominate him (Cain) anyway. If that happened, it’s certain that President Obama would win by even more then he did in 2008.

….. He’s the latest in a procession of preposterous Republican candidates who have soared across the party’s firmament … The GOP’s primary voters have been relentlessly looking for Mr. Un-Romney…..

Full article here

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Alan Krueger (White House): Today’s employment report provides further evidence that the economy is continuing to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, but the pace of improvement is not fast enough.

Private sector payrolls increased by 104,000, and overall payroll employment rose by 80,000 in October. The unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percentage point to 9.0 percent, a level that remains unacceptably high.

Despite adverse shocks that have created headwinds for economic growth, the economy has added private sector jobs for 20 straight months, for a total of 2.8 million jobs over that period. We need faster economic growth to put more Americans back to work. Today’s report provides further evidence for why it is so important that Congress pass the President’s American Jobs Act ….

More here

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Timothy Egan (NYT): For a Republican Party that has spent the better part of its presidential campaign proving that most of its candidates are not smarter than a fifth grader, the real scandal around frontrunner-of-the-moment Herman Cain is not what he knows. It’s what he doesn’t know.

…. China, said Cain with his clueless urgency, is “trying to develop nuclear capability.” Anyone who is gobsmacked by this category five level of ignorance concerning a country that has had nuclear weapons for more than 45 years has not been paying attention. Cain makes Sarah Palin, with her eagle-eyed view of Russia from Alaska, sound like a Council of Foreign Relations scholar on a gasbag high.

The clowns have finally taken over the circus, and I mean this with all due respect to those who labor with painted faces and oversized shoes…..

Full article here

Thanks Dorothy

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Steve Benen: On the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, Senate Republicans killed a popular jobs bill, despite the fact that a majority of senators supported the legislation. But the public’s understanding of what transpired will be shaped by the media’s coverage…..

…. CNN’s headline, at least online, read, “Competing infrastructure spending measures fail in Senate.” Here’s the lede: “In a pair of votes aimed more at making political points than law, the Senate rejected competing Democratic and Republican proposals to boost construction of roadways and other infrastructure projects.”….

Politico’s report was even worse. The headline read, “Senate gridlock: Both parties block jobs bills.” And check out the lede: “Rival Democratic and Republican jobs bills failed in the Senate on Thursday, the latest sign of the partisan gridlock gripping Washington…..”.

No, no, a thousand times, no. This just isn’t what happened…..

Full post here

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Long may he, eh, rain:

Cannes, Nov 4

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I forgot to post our Friday tune – thanks for the reminder WIW 😉

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Don’t miss Extreme Liberal’s post:

Here

Thanks ChristiMtl

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Follow Henry on Twitter – here

Thanks Meta 😉

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the road to moneygall (say hello to henry in the comments)

An Irish television documentary on Henry Healy (and his American cousin)

Original video here

UPDATE: Sorry, video no longer available at link