Début de la tournée européenne aujourd'hui et son premier arrêt est l'Irlande. Oui, Obama a du sang irlandais!
"Obama arrived on Air Force One on a windy, rainy day, and was due to hold talks with Irish President Mary McAleese, and later the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.
His next move will appeal to 37 million Americans who claim Irish ancestry, and could produce powerful imagery for his 2012 re-election campaign.
He is to visit Moneygall, a sleepy village of 300 people that was the birthplace of his great-great-great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, a shoemaker.
"This is a homecoming of sorts for President Obama," said Ben Rhodes, White House deputy national security adviser.
Town residents lined up for up to six hours last week to get a ticket to see the president, who has been affectionately renamed "O'Bama" for his Irish sojourn.
A security zone was set up around the town on Monday and only people with tickets will be let in.
Henry Healy, Obama's 24-year-old distant cousin from Moneygall, told Ireland's state broadcaster that villagers had painted the front of their houses to prepare for the visit.
"Nearly every American president makes the visit to Ireland and it's very special that President Obama is actually really able to make that personal connection by coming back and being able to trace his roots and come and see the ancestral home," Healy said.
Obama, the first African-American U.S. president, is the son of a Kenyan father and Irish-American mother."
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/05/22/world/europe/international-us-obama-ireland.html?_r=1
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