Just after 9.30 a.m. Irish time, the president and First Lady Michelle Obama touched down in Dublin aboard Air Force One.
And in what would a whirlwind handful of hours, and a visit cut short by the threat of ash from an Icelandic volcano - both president and first lady had completely charmed the country that Obama’s great-great-great-grandfather had departed in 1850 for a new life in America.
One of the main stops on the president’s trip was to the village of Moneygall in Offaly, home of his ancestor and a place that for about an hour became one of the most media blitzed places on earth.
The president, surrounded by Secret Service agents and Irish police, made his way to the Ollie Hayes public house where he was poured a pint of plain that he rightfully allowed to settle before putting to his lips.
“It is quite an art, I want to get it perfect,” he said to landlord Ollie Hayes, before toasting in Irish and taking a sip.
“It’s delicious, that’s good stuff. I am very impressed,” was the verdict. During his visit, Obama revealed that the pint was not his first on Irish soil and that he had quaffed one during a stopover at Shannon during a secret flight to Afghanistan last year.
While the president reserved the formal speech for encounters with political leaders in Dublin later, Moneygall was all about meeting the locals, as he and the first lady shook hands with what seemed to be all 298 residents of the village, and then some.
Obama then made his way to the modest terraced house that now stands where his family member once lived, and was introduced to his eighth cousin, Henry Healy, who could barely contain his delight.
Back in Dublin, the president took to College Green in front of an estimated 50,000 people and told them: “My name is Barack Obama of the Moneygall Obamas, and I’ve come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way.”
In a rousing speech, Obama encouraged people not to give in to those who claim Ireland cannot cope with the challenges facing it.
“We’re people, the Irish and Americans, who never stop imagining a brighter future, even in bitter times. We’re people who make that future happen through hard work, and through sacrifice, through investing in those things that matter most, like family and community.”
Obama said said Ireland was a “little country that inspires the biggest things - your best days are still ahead”.
He even finished with “is féidir linn,” the Irish version of his campaign catchphrase of “Yes we can”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, at the end of an extraordinary week during which he had also played host the Queen Elizabeth, added his words of praise for the homecoming American visitor.
“When Fulmouth Kearney started out on the long Atlantic crossing, he might have dreamed, but hardly imagined, that one day his great-great-great-grandson would return as the president of the United States,” he told the crowd.
“This evening my call is directly to those 40 million Irish Americans. Whether you’re listening or watching in New York or New Haven, or in San Diego, or St. Louis, and whether you’re Irish by blood, or by marriage, or by desire, we, your family, your Irish family, are right here to welcome you to follow your president home.”
