Needless to say, Barack has Irish ancestors. (Doesn’t everybody famous?) His late mother, Anne Dunham, was a descendant of Fulmouth Kearney who left Moneygall, Co. Offaly (Latitude: 52° 52′ 49 N, Longitude: 7° 57 ‘ 31 W) , for the US in 1850.

But here’s the neat twist: Mr Kearney was a Protestant! Or, as my dear mother used to say (for she was not a woman to mince her words and took a dim view of non-Catholics), a ‘Black Proteshtant’. Yippee!