A tour operator that takes visitors from around the world to visit Kogelo village, the Kenyan ancestral home of Barack Obama, has introduced an Irish leg which takes in the US President’s ancestral home in the midlands.
Maasailand Adventures’ day tour to Moneygall, Co Offaly follows the President’s recent successful visit to the town that was home to his great-great-great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney, who left for the US in 1850 at the age of 19.
“It is history that the village Moneygall is linked to the very first black president of America,” Maasailand’s sales and marketing director Mubarak Habib told Metro Éireann.
“In a situation where you want people to know about his heritage, it would be good for people to complete the circle of the president’s heritage.”
According to Habib, the tour will also play “a very good part in the development of Moneygall” as a tourist destination.
He said the first official tour would take place on Sunday 3 July and has been “specially organised for friends of Maasailand Adventures”. It coincides with the very first festival in Moneygall on 4 July, which is also Independence Day in the US.
Habib said tourists to the area “would experience a village that people wouldn’t have thought would have a link to the first black President of the US”.
He also said the discovery of President Obama’s Moneygall roots is capable of improving relations between the black community and white Irish.
“I believe it is going to change the views of people who have been negative to the Irish black community... Taking the tour and thinking about the man himself, especially his achievement as the first black President of America, who is also the most powerful person in the world, will be a source of inspiration.”
Habib also said the development offers an opportunity for Africans to play a very positive role in the Irish society.
“I urge Irish people to give Africans the opportunity to do so. Otherwise, the country would lose the innovation which Africans could bring to all walks of life in Ireland.”
