The President, the First Lady and their daughters depart for Belfast, Northern Ireland tomorrow (Sunday) at 9:20 PM.
They arrive in Belfast on Monday morning.
The First Lady will introduce the President at an event at the Waterfront Convention Centre in Belfast where he will deliver remarks.
While the President then travels to Lough Erne for the G8 Summit, the First Lady and her daughters will leave for Dublin in the Republic of Ireland.
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Handy map:
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The President’s Northern Ireland schedule:
Monday: Arrives Belfast. Delivers remarks at the Waterfront Convention Centre in the city when he will address his support for the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Meets Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of the G8 Summit. Later, he attends the G-8 Summit at Lough Erne.
On Monday evening, the President will hold a bilateral meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
Tuesday: In the evening, following the G-8, the President and the First Family will travel to Berlin, Germany.
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The First Lady and her daughters will visit Trinity College shortly after their arrival in Dublin Monday, lunchtime (local time)…..
(…. remember one of our fave pics from the President’s speech in Dublin? That’s Trinity College behind the veryvery excited young women)…..
Henry Healy greets his eighth cousin, President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama, after their arrival in Moneygall, Ireland, May 23, 2025 (Photo: Pete Souza)
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Whaddya mean it’s too early for a Rise and Shine?! It’s already St Patrick’s Day in Ireland! Catch up!
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A St Patrick’s Day word from Henry Healy:
Happy St Patrick’s Day from the Ancestral Home of President Obama.
Hi everyone, I wanted to share my St Patrick’s Day greetings with you all.
When I think back to the visit of the president to Moneygall and the amazing journey I have had from visiting last St Patrick’s Day and attending the inauguration this year I am eternally grateful.
As I go to the White House on Tuesday I will be thinking of the great people and experiences I have had and all of you here at TOD have been part of it.
I hope that those of you with Irish Heritage have a fantastic St Patrick’s Day and those of you without Irish Heritage put on the green and join in and celebrate with us.
Henry
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You can follow Henry on Twitter here
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At The Dubliner bar, Washington DC, March 17, 2025
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A St Patrick’s Day word from Canon Stephen Neill, the man who discovered President Obama’s Irish roots:
To all my friends at The Obama Diary, I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy St. Patrick’s Day. We in Ireland are constantly amazed and encouraged by the warmth and hospitality extended to us as a nation by the people of the United States. President Obama has embraced this important relationship and the ongoing hospitality he affords to his Moneygall friends and relations is hugely appreciated. I had the privilege of a visit to the White House myself last month and was very grateful to members of the Obama administration who facilitated this for me at very short notice.
We in Moneygall are delighted that Henry Healy will once again be meeting the President at the official reception for St. Patrick’s day and look forward to perhaps another presidential visit to Moneygall during this second term of office. The visit in 2011 was a transformative experience for the people in this area and the fruits of that are still to be seen. It is a community that was energized and inspired by your President and the First Lady.
On this St. Patrick’s Day when people of all creeds and backgrounds in this land are united by a love of their country we pray that President Obama will find his Irish roots a source of blessing and inspiration as he too seeks to unite the people of the United States in that most important quest for the good and prosperity of all people. May God bless you all.
Reverend Canon Stephen Neill shows President Barack Obama his Irish ancestral records at Ollie Hayes’s Pub in Moneygall, County Offaly, Ireland, May 23, 2025 (Photo: Pete Souza)
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Endless thanks to Henry and Stephen for passing on their good wishes to everyone at TOD, they are two completely lovely gentlemen.
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Some day soon, I hope, I’ll find sufficient words to thank LovelyPlains, UTAustinLiberal, Amk and LiberalLibrarian for all they’ve done this week, but for now I’m struggling. Seriously, I don’t even know where to begin. All I can say to them is, thank you so much - you’re just amazingly kind people, and between you, you’ve kept this place going in my absence. And a couple of them had never posted on a blog before, but set about teaching themselves how do it while I disappeared. Needless to say, they are all welcome to post here any time they wish, I’m honored to have them contribute here and it’s a way better place for it.
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Embarrassingly, I still haven’t replied to a whole bunch of people who offered the kindest of words and/or offers to help with the blog - I am truly sorry, but I will try VERY hard to reply in the next day or two. Thank you, sincerely, for your support, it meant everything.
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Will catch up with you all in the next day or two, love ya.
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!!!!!
I posted the video below in the comments in the previous thread in response to Joan’s take on the debate: “The world is listening to these people. They’re all seriously embarrassing the United States, the entire country. They should be dumped in a deep lake somewhere.”
So true.
But, I honestly think the world sees the difference between these nutjobs and sane Americans!
Just as a small example, when George W Bush came to Ireland in 2004 it was the biggest security operation in the history of the state because of the protests against his visit. The public wasn’t allowed anywhere near him.
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, 2025
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, 2025
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.
The Herald (Ireland): The eighth cousin of Barack Obama has received a personalised present from the US President - as a thank you for the reception on his visit to Moneygall.
Henry Healy, affectionately known as ‘Henry the Eighth’, was given a leather-bound notebook - with the Presidential seal and signatures of Obama and his wife Michelle - by US embassy staff last week.
The accountant met Obama when he visited Moneygall, his ancestral Irish home, on his trip here in May.
A delighted Henry said: “The embassy staff brought it down to me last week. I’ll be keeping it and I won’t be writing in it. I still even have the wrapping paper it came in and it’s something I’ll treasure for many years to come.”
Moneygall publican Ollie Hayes received two silver goblets from the President, as well as gold cufflinks from the US advance team.
Henry also celebrated Independence Day in style yesterday, when he was invited to the US Ambassador’s residence to join in the celebrations there.
Reuters: ….In Africa, Michelle Obama has been welcomed as the daughter of a continent she has only visited a handful of times, and interest is high in her unique position as a black presidential spouse and leader in her own right.
….Does she feel a kinship with Africa? “Absolutely, yeah,” she said in the interview, before comparing that to the feeling she had in Moneygall, Ireland, where the president met a distant cousin in May.
“I absolutely feel that connection here. And I wasn’t surprised by it. I absolutely felt that connection in Moneygall (and was) a little more surprised by it.”
Thousands of people lined the main street of tiny Moneygall last month, welcoming the Obamas as if they were long lost relatives…. “The love, the warmth, the connection, the excitement. That was family, too. And that’s what I want my kids to understand - that your family is Granny in Kisumu, but it’s also your cousin in Moneygall. That is your history. That is really the American history.”
Audiences in Johannesburg and Cape Town found the first lady’s history and success inspiring … “As a young black woman, I see her as a role model,” said Nozi Samela, 26, in Cape Town, adding that it was Obama’s work - not necessarily her race - that generated admiration. “She has taken time to come to the communities, to see the people from the ground level, and actually talk to them, and hear what the issues they face are. I see her as a role model.”
Mamphela Ramphele, a former anti-apartheid activist who moderated Obama’s discussion with students at the university, said the first lady rose above skin color and gender. “To have someone like her who is successful in her own right and represents the transcendence of barriers of race, of class, of gender in the U.S. coming here and engaging in such a human way… that touches the hearts of ordinary people,” Ramphele said.
White House.gov
