But Irish Americans say they're still waiting for Barack Obama to embrace another influential figure from his past: his great-great-great-grandfather Falmouth Kearney.
An Irish immigrant who came to America in 1850, Kearney hailed from Moneygall, County Offaly, a tiny Irish village about an hour and a half west of Dublin. And according to Ancestry.com, this link makes Obama about 3.1 percent Irish.