segunda-feira, 23 de maio de 2011

Obama arrives in Ireland


Dublin, Ireland (CNN) -- President Barack Obama met with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny in Ireland on Monday on the first stop of a six-day, four-country European tour.
Obama praised Ireland for its work on issues of peace, security and human rights. In a meeting with Kenny, Obama cited Ireland's contribution in particular to an agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland.
"Ireland punches above its weight," Obama said. "All of that makes a huge difference around the world.
"I wanted to just express to the Irish people ... how inspired we have been by the progress that has been made in Northern Ireland," he said. "It speaks to the possibilities of peace and people and longstanding struggles being able to reimagine their relationships".
Kenny welcomed the American president.
"The Irish people have been waiting for this visit," he said.
The president planted a tree -- an upright Irish oak -- earlier Monday in a park with trees planted by former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.
Obama also plans to visit the United Kingdom, France and Poland this week. He will "reaffirm the importance of our relations with our European allies," particularly the British, White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
The president will talk about ways the United States and European allies can cooperate on issues such as international economics, Afghanistan and Libya, Carney said.
He plans to attend the G8 meeting in France of leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Obama will talk about "ways that we can work together to enhance economic development in Egypt and Tunisia," where democratic movements dislodged authoritarian rulers, Carney said.
In Ireland, Obama plans to visit the Irish village of Moneygall, population 300, which claims to be the birthplace of one of his great-great-great grandfathers.
Henry Healy, one of Moneygall's many residents claiming to be a distant relative of America's first African-American president, hopes to hoist a beer with the town's favorite son.
"We knew that the president had interest in his Irish roots," Healy said. "He expressed while he was seeking the Democratic nomination that he did want to visit the little village in Ireland and have a pint".
Situated in central Ireland between Dublin and Limerick, Moneygall has undergone a patriotic facelift. With American flags hanging in front of homes and stores, Obama might feel like he's visiting a small town in the U.S. on the Fourth of July.
Genealogists at Ancestry.com first shed light on Obama's Irish roots when he was campaigning for the presidency. They traced his Irish ancestry several generations to a fellow by the name of Fulmoth Kearney, the president's great-great-great grandfather on his mother's side, who immigrated from Moneygall to Ohio in 1850.
Maybe it was that "luck o' the Irish" -- or perhaps support from some of the 40 million Irish-Americans -- that helped Obama win the presidential nomination.
"It never hurts to be a little Irish when you're running for the presidency of the United States of America," Obama joked during a campaign stop in 2008.
CNN