Obama has pint with kin, hails the Irish

DUBLIN, Ireland, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama visited his mother's ancestral Irish village Monday and hailed Irish-American ties in a Dublin speech.

In an address to a crowd estimated at 25,000 in College Green, the president saluted "this little country that inspires the biggest things."

"Irish signatures are on our founding documents," he said. "Irish blood was spilled on our battlefields. Irish sweat built our great cities. Our spirit is eternally refreshed by Irish story and Irish song."

He also cited the friendship between black American abolitionist Frederick Douglass and Irish hero Daniel O'Connell.

Obama invoked his great-great-great-grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, who left Ireland during the 1840s famine and pursued "the American Dream."

He thanked "the genealogists who traced my family tree" and said, "I do wish somebody had provided me all this evidence earlier because it would have come in handy back when I was first running in my hometown of Chicago."

Earlier, in Moneygall, Obama drank Guinness at a pub with Irishmen who could be his distant cousins.

"You look a little like my grandfather," he said to one man in the hamlet where his ancestor was born.

At the Ollie Hays pub, he said: "There are millions of Irish-Americans who trace their ancestry back to this beautiful island. Part of why this makes it so special is because the Irish influence on American culture is so powerful in the arts, in politics, in commerce.

"And with that, let me have a pint."

Air Force One landed at Dublin Airport Monday morning and Obama and his wife were flown to President Mary McAleese's official residence in Phoenix Park in a windy helicopter ride.

There Obama signed the official guest book and planted an Irish upright oak, which later will be moved to a location in the park near trees planted by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton.

Following a dinner at the U.S. Embassy, Obama is to fly to London Monday night. The White House said Air Force One's departure was moved up because of the ash cloud from the Iceland volcano.