As the residents of Moneygall ready themselves to play host to Barack Obama on May 23, many hope the visit will bring
the Irish village exactly what the President’s great-great-great-grandfather
sought when he left there 150 years ago: prosperity.
It takes less than a minute to drive
through Obama’s ancestral hometown, a sleepy and typical rural village whose main
attractions are a single pub, a corner shop, a post office and a
football field. But days before the President’s arrival, the quiet that usually blankets the village is broken by the stroke of paintbrushes, the
flapping of Stars and Stripes, the squeak of practicing fiddlers,
and the whirr of the advance security team’s sleek cars. At Ollie Hayes’ bar, the nerve-center of the visit, local drinkers
watch with fascination as international camera crews come and go and
men in black suits discuss final details.
The recent cosmetic changes to the village in Country Offaly have been
dramatic, but Canon Neill believes the real change “is in the spirit
of the people.” Obama’s visit has given them “self belief,” and the sense that they have
something worthwhile to offer which will “reap rewards into the
future,” he says. The President is expected to spend less than two hours in Moneygall as part of
his one-day Irish stopover — but the brief return of a long-lost son
will leave an imprint that could last for generations.
See the 2011 TIME 100.
See the 140 Best Twitter Feeds.
