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In all, from John Adams to Barack Obama, no fewer than 20 Presidents of the United States have traced their ancestry to Ireland.
Indeed, the very architect of the White House was an Irish-Catholic immigrant. James Hoban (1758-1831, a native of Kilkenny who had settled in Charleston, South
Carolina.
The story of Ulster's Presidential links begins with the Great Seal of the United States. This was designed in 1782 by Charles
Thomson of Derry, author of the original draft of the Declaration of
Independence & Secretary of Congress. His is the flying eagle, with the motto he chose from a Latin recipe for a mixed salad "e pluribus unum" - Out of many, one.
Gray’s Printing Press in Strabane, the birthplace of John Dunlap who went on to found the Pennsylvania Packet and printed the American Declaration of Independence.
Eleven of the 56 signatories of the American Declaration of Independence had
Irish roots. They were John Hancock from Co.Down; William Whipple,from
Antrim; Robert Paine, from Dungannon; Thomas McKean from Ballymoney; Thomas
Nelson from Strabane; Matthew Thornton from Londonderry; and George Taylor and Edward Rutledge,
both of an Ulster Presbyterian family. Thomas Lynch of South Carolina was from Galway. Matthew Thompson of Pennsylvania was from Limerick.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton came from Waterford. And finally The Constitution was signed in Philadelphia under a Waterford crystal chandelier
still to be seen in Independence Hall.
Our tour of American Ireland takes in 22 of Ireland’s 32 counties, and you will all the scenic, historic and heritage highlights.
Day 1 Arrive Dublin. Tour the city, see the American Embassy in Ballsbridge, the American Ambassador’s residence in The Phoenix Park, and some of the more traditional highlights of Dublin such as Trinity College, The Georgian Squares and Dublin Castle. Enjoy a welcome evening of Irish song and dance.
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Day 2 Tour along the East Coast by way of the gardens of Powerscourt and the valley of Glendalough, where St Kevin founded his monastery 1,500 years ago, Enniscorthy with its castle, to Wexford, home of Commander John Barry (and also incidentally Buffalo Bill). Overnight near New Ross, close to the coast.
Day 3 To the Kennedy homestead and thence on to Waterford to visit the Crystal factory. You’ll pass the birthplace of Thomas Meagher of "fighting 69th" Irish Brigade, and The Grange, John’s Hill, the family home of Raymond Chandler. Carry on to Cobh where you can visit the Cobh Heritage Centre and see the statue of Annie Murphy, the first person to pass through Ellis Island. Overnight in Cork.
Day 4 By way of Killarney, with its famous lakes and mountains, to Adare, a beautiful thatched village whose golf course has often been played by Bill Clinton and Tiger Woods. Overnight in Adare.
Day 5 Through Limerick to Tipperary and through the scenic Glen of Aherlow to Ballyporeen, Ronald Regan’s home place. By way of Cahir Castle and The Rock of Cashel (passing the ancestral homes of individuals as diverse as Martin Sheen and Rex Ingram) to Barak Obama’s Moneygal. Overnight near Roscrea.
Day 6 The gardens of Birr Castle, the ancient monastic site of Clonmacnoise, Roscommon Castle, W. B. Yeats’ Sligo, a landscape which inspired the poet, and overnight in Lough Eske Castle.
Day 7 Visit Cavancor, James Polk’s family home, Grays Printing press, Ulysses S. Grant’s home, Lunch at The Ulster American folk park, the Mellon family home, over the mountains to Upperlands and back to Donegal by way of the walled city of Derry.
Day 8 By way of Lough Erne with its prehistoric monuments on Boa Island, which we should stop at, to Castle Coole, a stately neo classical home and headquarters of the US 8th Infantry Division during the war, and then to Andrew Jackson’s ancestral home. Lunch at the Linen Green at Moygashel, a pleasant café in a luxury retail shopping outlet. Visit the Irish Linen Centre in Lisburn, where the history of the North’s Industrial Revolution is well displayed. Overnight Belfast.
Day 9 Explore The Ards Peninsula, Groomsport Harbour was the location where the first attempted emigration from Ulster to America took place. Rev Robert Blair of Bangor, Rev John McClelland of Newtownards, Rev John Livingstone of Killinchy and Rev James Hamilton of Ballywalter were the four ministers who commissioned the famous ship The Eagle Wing. They had come to Ulster to minister to the Ulster Scots Presbyterians in the Hamilton and Montgomery Settlement area. Eagle Wing sailed from the harbour at Groomsport on the morning of 9th September 1636, the morning after Sir Hugh Montgomery’s grand Scottish state funeral in the Priory of Newtownards. Today her journey is remembered each year in the annual Eagle Wing Festival.
Visit the Marquis of Londonderry’s house and gardens, Mount Stewart.. Then take the ferry across Strangford Lough to Downpatrick, the 18th Century Cathedral town where Irelands return to Belfast by way of Killyleigh Castle and Rowallane gardens. Overnight Belfast.
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| Groomsport | Mount Stewart | Eisenhower Monument |
Day 10 This morning explore the Capital City of Belfast, the industrial centre where Harland and Wolff built the Titanic. Visit the many museums and galleries in the city, with a private tour to one of Belfast’s seats of government, unless the administrators are actually sitting. On to the Larne Emigrants Statue - This impressive monument is at Curran Park in Larne, depicting a family about to leave Ulster for America. The inscription on the marble plinth reads:
"This memorial, unveiled on 16th May 1992 by Professor Bobby Moss PhD of South Carolina, is dedicated to the memory of those first Ulster emigrants who sailed from Larne in May 1717 upon the 'Friends Goodwill', bound for Boston. They were to be the first of many. There is no other race in the United States that can produce a roll of honour so long and so shining with distinction. And who shall deny our claim to have done more, much more, than any others to make the United States."
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| Carrickfergus | Larne Emigrants | Arthur Home |
Leaving Belfast behind, follow the Causeway Coastal Route and visit dramatic castle at Carrickfergus. Just outside the town visit The Andrew Jackson Centre. Through the Glens to visit the Alan Arthur Cottage. If departing from Belfast Airport overnight Belfast. If departing Dublin overnight Drogheda.
Day 11 Depart.
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The roster of U.S. presidents of Irish heritage reads as follows:
1. John Adams -- His mother, Susanna Boylston Adams, was reportedly descended from a family that had been farmers in Ulster for generations. The family name is thought originally to have been Boyle, embellished to Boylston, as was not uncommonly done.
2. James Monroe -- Monroe's Irish antecedents are a little had to pin down, but a direct ancestor named Monroe (or Munro) is said to have been a Scottish officer who married a local woman while serving in Ulster during the last 17th or early 18th century.
3. John Quincy Adams -- As the son of John Adams, he naturally had his father's Boylston heritage.
4. Andrew Jackson -- Both parents came from the village of Boneybefore in Carrickferfus, County Antrim.
5. James K. Polk – from Lifford, in Donegal -The family name had originally been Pollick, a common Ulster name since the Plantation. (The 'Plantation' was the 'planting' of Scottish protestants in the province of Ulster by the British in order to dilute the native Irish population.) His mother's family was also from Ulster.
6. James Buchanan -- Both of his father's parents came from County Donegal, after having lived for a time in Larne, County Antrim. His mother's roots seem also to have been in Ulster.
7. Andrew Johnson -- His Irish ancestors came from County Antrim.
8. Ulysses S. Grant -- Grant's mother, Hannah Simpson, lived in a small farmhouse at Dergenagh, County Tyrone, before emigrating to America.
9. Chester A. Arthur -- His father, William Arthur, was born in the Dreen, Cullbackey, County Antrim, in a house that still stands. His mother was reportedly also of Ulster ancestry.
10. Grover Cleveland -- His mother's father was a Neal (or Neill) who had immigrated from Ulster.
11. Benjamin Harrison -- Harrison had Ulster roots on his mother's side.
12. William McKinley -- His father's family had come from Dervock, County Antrim, where the name had been spelled McKinley.
13. Theodore Roosevelt -- Roosevelt's mother, Martha Bullock, came from a Scot-Irish and Huguenot family that had lived in County Antrim. His father's mother Margaret Potts Burnhill, was also born in County Antrim
14. Woodrow Wilson -- Both of his paternal grandparents -- James Wilson and Annie Mills (Wilson) -- were from the Strabane area of County Antrim.
15. John Fitzgerald Kennedy -- Kennedy's ancestors all came from Ireland. His paternal great-grandfather, Patrick Kennedy, had emigrated from Dunganstown, New Ross, County Wexford to Boston, and there married Bridget Murphy, another immigrant. The paternal grandparents of Kennedy's mother -- Thomas Fitzgerald and Rose Mary Murray -- had also emigrated from County Wexford.
16. Richard M. Nixon -- Nixon numbered Irish Quakers among his forebears. His great-great-grandfather, Richard Milhous, was born at Timahoe, County Laois. While in the White House, the Nixons owned an Irish setter they named King Timahoe.
17. Ronald W. Reagan -- Reagan's paternal great-grandfather, Michael Regan, emigrated from Ballyporeen, County Timmerary, in 1829.
18. One of President George W Bush's five times great-grandfathers, William Holliday, was born in Rathfriland, Co Down, about 1755, and died in Kentucky about 1811-12. One of the President's seven times great-grandfathers, William Shannon, was born somewhere in Co Cork about 1730, and died in Pennsylvania in 1784. Mr Bush's ancestor on his mother's side, William Gault, was a first citizen of Tennessee in 1796 and was born in Co. Antrim.
19. Bill Clinton. His great-grandmother, Hattie Hayes, was said to have Irish parents from Kinawley in Co Fermanagh
20 Barak Obama’s ggggrandmother came from Moneygal in County Offaly.
