Hail to the Chief: American Presidents with Irish Roots

America is the quintessential melting pot, a nation built by immigrants. This includes Irish emigrés, from early Colonial settlements into the twentieth century, who contributed greatly to the shaping of U.S.A. as a nation. This is reflected within the United States presidency, one of the most influential positions in America as well as now the world. Many notable U.S. president possess Irish and/or Scots-Irish heritage.

One of the most beloved and revered U.S. presidents of the twentieth century is of Irish descent. John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK, 1917-1963), the 35th president, was well-known for his Irish heritage on both his paternal and maternal sides. It was potent aspect of his cultural identity. And, although other presidents had Irish lineage, Kennedy was the first president who was Catholic, another significant facet of his upbringing and character. The Kennedy family was recognized for their religious devotion. All four of his great-grandparents immigrated from Ireland. His paternal ancestors from County Wexford and his maternal family hailed from Limerick. During his presidency In 1963, Kennedy and the First Lady, Jackie, visited Ireland. The high profile tour included Kennedy’s acestorial regions, Wexford and Limerick, as well as Galway.

Though JFK wasn't the first president to claim Irish ancestry, he was the first to visit Ireland on an official tour. Pictured here with Irish and Irish American relatives at the Kennedy ancestral homestead in Dunganstown, County Wexford. (Photograph by Cecil Stoughton, White House, in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)

JFK defined a generation and marked a shift in American, as well as Western, society. He was at the age of 43 in 1959 the youngest president elected, which foreshadowed the coming decade’s rise of counterculture activity and a departure from conventional values. This is additionally evident in his victory over Nixon, a experienced conservative politician who had been the Vice President. Kennedy grew up with politics. His father Joseph, a successful businessman, also became engaged in state and local politics and later on the national scene with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration as the Securities Exchange Commissioner and then Ambassador to England from 1938 to 1940. Democratic Party’s ideals and his father’s connections and pushing were significant factors in Kennedy’s ascendency in the political sphere.

Although Joseph Kennedy acquired wealth, he and his wife, Rose, JFK’s mother, were not very involved in Boston or Massachusetts society; they instead placed their attentions on their children with special consideration to their education. Joseph was described as a strict father who pushed his children to be winners. Despite this competitive attitude, Kennedy was a mediocre student with a grade point average to represent that. He attended a Catholic Boarding School in Connecticut and then Choate, an elite preparatory school in Massachusetts, before university. He went to Harvard where he continued his lackluster academic habits. After graduation Kennedy joined the Navy and fought in the South Pacific against the Japanese in WWII.

Ambassador of Ireland Thomas J. Kiernan presents President Kennedy with an arrangement of shamrocks in the Oval Office on St. Patrick's Day 1961. Ambassador Kiernan also presented the President with a scroll displaying the Kennedy coat of arms signed by Chief Herald of Ireland, Gerard Slevin. (Cecil Stoughton. White House Photographs. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston)

As president Kennedy had both successes and failures and his interests were mainly in the realm of foreign affairs. Some initiatives called for activism: he created the Peace Corps as well as The Alliance for Progress in hopes of combating poverty the spread of Communism in underdeveloped countries. One of the most crucial moments of his presidency is the showdown between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and its leader Nikita Khrushchev, The Cuban Missile Crisis. Khrushchev sent ballistic nuclear missiles to Cuba 90 miles off the coast of Florida. After ten extremely tense days, where the world seems to be on the edge of nuclear destruction, the leaders made a pact. Kruschev would remove the missile if Kennedy promised they would not invade Cuba and remove American missiles from Turkey. This later led to the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty along with Great Britain easing tensions between the Soviet Union and the West. However, in contrast to these highpoints, Kennedy’s covert plan with the CIA to overthrow Fidel Castro by invading Cuba, known as the Bay of Pigs, resulted in a bungled failure. Most tragic was is premature death. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas while traveling in a presidential motorcade in November 1963. Many conspiracy theories stemmed from the shocking event as the nation began to lose its innocence as it moved through the turmoil of the 1960s.

Although Kennedy’s Irish heritage is significantly regarded, other presidents trace their ethnicity the Emerald Island. President Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), obvious with his surname, is of Irish lineage. He too defined an era, the 1980s in America. In contrast to Kennedy, he was the oldest President elected at the age of 73 as the 40th president. His great-great and great grandfather emigrated from Ballyporeen, County Tipperary during the Great Famine in the mid-nineteenth century settling in Illinois where his grandfather was born and also where the former president was born and raised. His midwestern upbringing profoundly shaped his ideals. However, he did downplay his Irish roots during his campaign to the White House, as he worried it would be an issue with the White Anglo-Saxon faction of the Republican party. A recent discovery, the Morpeth Roll in 2010, shows Reagan’s ancestors’ signatures from 1841 before they emigrated. The Roll was a sort of going away card for Lord Morpeth, chief secretary in the region, 1835-1841, who returned to his home in Yorkshire, England. The Roll possesses 160,000 signatures and the names of several ancestors of Irish-Americans.

Ronald Reagan visits his ancestral home town of Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, 1984. (Official White House Photograph)

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) has been a beacon for many Republicans in America. The 80s demonstrated, at least in-part, a shift toward conservative goals, particularly fiscal platforms emphasizing business, deregulation, and tax cuts. The term Reaganomics became synonymous for the trickle-down theory that if big business and the upper echelons thrived it would spread and benefit the rest of the population. Less taxes and regulation would also be good for small business. However, the effects of this methodology continues to be debated by economic and social policy-makers, academics and everyday people. The overall approach also resulted in a progression in consumer culture. Also dubbed ‘the great communicator,” Reagan astutely harnessed his prior experience in show business and as an actor. His popularity certainly relied on his ability to perform and exploit aspects of personality. Reagan too emphasized foreign policy. He took office at the height of the Cold War and albeit a great advocate of less government spending and cutting taxes, he ramped up defense spending and many credit this as a significant factor in the demise of the Soviet Union. Reagan enjoyed strong approval rates and popularity, but also great criticism for empowering corporate America, increased military spending and the dismissal of social issues such as, most dramatically, the emerging AIDS crisis, which stymied progress for medical research and treatment.

Early in United States history is Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), one of the most dynamic and notable U.S. president and is directly linked to Ireland as a first generation American with both parents from Ireland. More than a mere portrait on the twenty dollar bill, Jackson, the 7th president, gained fame as a war hero; he was a general in the War of 1812 and defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans. Hailing from Tennessee, born and raised, Jackson’s parents were impoverished Protestant farmers from Boneyfore in County Antrim who immigrated in 1765. Prominent for his populist values as a Tennessee senator, he championed the idea of the common man in America stressing the individual liberty for which he continues to be a symbol. He was the first frontier president, not of one of the original thirteen colonies. Jackson also asserted a southern consciousness along with his Vice President (first term only) from South Carolina, John C. Calhoun (1782-1843). Calhoun was of Scots-Irish descent and his father emigrated from County Donegal. Jackson was also the proprietor of a plantation, which by the time of his death held approximately 150 slaves. One of his most controversial acts shortly after taking office was to pull all federal funds from the Second Bank of United States rather than renewing its charter or reorganizing and essentially destroying its function as an instrument of the central government. The institution proposed by Alexander Hamilton, was criticized as impeding entrepreneurial growth and catering to east coast interests. This was Jackson’s version of “draining the swamp.” He also signed and implemented the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which resulted in the displacement of tribes west of the Mississippi.

As such a potent force as a personality, Jackson earned a couple nicknames. “Old Hickory” is perhaps the most affectionate interpretation of his character and his commanding style as a general. The moniker was applied after the Battle of New Orleans; it was said he was as tough as old hickory, a tree with a very hard wood. As a populist and for his first inaugural ball, Jackson opened up the white house to the public. Raucous activity ensued. This in addition to his insolent nature and excessive use of the veto merited him the nickname “King Mob.”

In addition to Jackson other nineteenth-century presidents claim Irish roots. James Polk (1795-1849), the 11th president, was a protogé of Jackson’s when serving in the Tennessee legislature although he grew up in North Carolina. His roots were Scots-Irish and his ancestors were some of the earliest settlers of America. He is noted for territorial acquisition and a strong advocate of Manifest Destiny, the notion that the United States was ordained to expand westward to the Pacific. Under his leadership, the U.S. gained California, Oregon and New Mexico, the latter included waging war with Mexico. He died shortly after his singular term of cholera.

James Buchanan (1791-1868), who was elected as the 15th president, can trace his ancestral background to Ireland as one would guess from his surname. He hailed from Pennsylvania, but his family was Ulster-Scots and his father emigrated from County Donegal. He was not a popular president nor was he deemed a strong decision maker and was unable to bring a very divided country together resulting in the American Civil War beginning in 1861. He was also the only bachelor president with his niece serving as First Lady. Some have speculated he was actually gay.

The 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, 1822-1885), claims a bit of the Irish. His great-grandfather John Simpson was from County Tyrone. He was also the first president to visit his Irish ancestral homeland. Grant was more well-known as a General of the American Civil War than for his political prowess. His presidency was riddled with scandals of corruption; however, he did advocate rights for freed slaves and a peace agreement with Native Americans.

William McKinley (left) and Theodore Roosevelt (right) both claimed Irish ancestry and served as president and vice president together for five months until McKinley's assassination in September 1901. (Washington, D.C. Public Library / Flickr)

The two presidents who carried the United States from the nineteenth century into the twentieth claim some Irish. William McKinley (1843-1901), the 25th president elected in 1893, was a descendent of a farmer from Conagher in County Antrim. Proud of his Irish lineage, Mckinley even addressed the national Scots-Irish congress during his presidency. This Republican President led the U.S. into war with the Spanish last 100 days and gaining territories such as the Philippines and Puerto Rico and is also known for economic policies attempting to surmount the Depression of 1893. His presidency was, like Kennedy’s, cut short early in his second term by assassination in September 1901 by an assailant carrying a gun under a tissue during a public meet and greet. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) became the 26th president upon McKinley’s assassination at the age of 43, and his Irish connection comes from his maternal side, albeit quite removed, with an ancestor emigrating in 1729 from county Antrim (a familial connection not shared by his cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt). He is, without doubt, one of the most legendary and vigorous of U.S. presidents, if not Americans as a whole. He was a war hero the Spanish-American War leading the charge at San Juan Hill, a great conservationist, explorer, and politician. He saw himself as a steward of the people, while also expanding the powers of the office. His building of the Panama Canal is one of his more notable achievements as well as controversial.

In the twentieth century other presidents too possess at least a branch in their genealogical trees. Woodrow Wilson’s (1856-1924) paternal grandparents hailed from County Tyrone to Ohio. The 28th president of the Democratic Party is most renowned for being the leader of the Progressive Movement and the president during the U.S. involvement in World War I. Upon the Armistice, he flew to Paris to help negotiate the Treaty of Versaille which was rejected by the Republican Congress. Barack Obama (1961-) on his mother’s side. His third great-grandfather was from the small village of Moneygall in County Offaly. He and Michelle visited the village during his presidency and enjoyed the hospitality of a local pub.

Ireland is a small country. However, its vibrant culture and its adventurous people have made contributions to the World community. The evolution of the United States is marked by those who sought fulfillment in the ideal of America and is significantly intertwined with that of Irish-Americans.