Barack Obama has been voted one of history's three greatest political leaders with Irish ancestry, according to an international poll.
John F Kennedy, however, is voted the greatest such leader, ahead of Ronald Reagan second and Obama third, in an online poll of over 4,000 Americans and Britons conducted by YouGov for the genealogy site findmypast.com.
Che Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary who also had Irish roots, ranks fourth.
"The most surprising people turn out to have Irish ancestry," says Cliona Weldon, spokesperson for findmypast.ie.
The findmypast poll asked respondents in the US and UK to pick from a list of 10 political leaders who had won prominence in countries beyond Irish shores - in short, in the Irish Diaspora.
This Diaspora, consisting of Irish emigrants and their descendants, is estimated to include over 70 million people worldwide, including some 40 million Americans.
While Obama and JFK polled similar percentages with US and UK respondents, averaging 12 percent and 25 percent respectively, Reagan polled over four times as many votes in the US (35 percent) as in the UK (8 percent). Indeed, he would have topped the poll based on US votes alone, while the UK alone ranked him third behind Obama.
Obama, who only discovered his Irish roots in 2007, is just one of at least 13 US presidents to have had Irish ancestry. Indeed, the only one of the last six to have lacked them was Bill Clinton, who tried to atone for the fact by once informing a St Patrick's Day gathering that, "I feel more Irish every day!"
Other countries to have boasted notable leaders with Irish ancestry include Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Israel.
Che Guevara, the Argentine-born radical who helped lead the revolution in Cuba, may be best known today as an icon of Latin American rebellion but he traced his ancestry to Galway, Ireland in the 1740s.
J
FK and Reagan both traced their roots to the great wave of Irish emigration that began in the mid-19th century, coinciding with the great Famine.
By then, Obama's Irish forebear, Falmouth Keaney, had already been in the U.S. for eight years, after migrating from Moneygall in Co. Offaly in 1850. Keaney was Obama's maternal great-great-great grandfather.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.curtisjohnson | Nov 05, 2012, 09:26 PM EST
Don Bernardo O'Higgins would have been an excellent choice also.
borefield | Aug 29, 2012, 06:41 AM EDT
Please wake up and realize there is No Irish in Obama and, he doesn't want to be associated with the Irish , other than to pretend he does to get votes.
BrianO | May 26, 2012, 01:43 PM EDT
bythebay, did you say something, I must have missed it, @BobbyBhoy what's the connection to Phil Lynott and mudcat?
Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 01:42 PM EDT
I would like to see who was on their suggest list if there was one!! Bernardo O'Higgins, William Brown certainly should have been considered.
Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 01:15 PM EDT
The very limited poll is about world leader with Irish ancestry, NOT US President.
Bythebay | May 26, 2012, 01:12 PM EDT
BrianO, World doesn't equate to the US, I know that's probably an amazing concept for you Americans. There are nearly 200 countries in the World. This piece is misrepresentational and useless for any real information.
BobbyBhoy | May 26, 2012, 12:17 PM EDT
A mudcat?.....Philip Lynott and Paul McGrath
cogwheel | May 26, 2012, 10:41 AM EDT
Nobody asked me. I would have said Reagan, hands down.Kennedy wasn't President long enough to consider. I was there. He was mostly mystique, which I think would have wore off in time, which is what's happening to Obama. You can only fool people so long with the great speeches and a great smile. Eventually you must DO something.
pounder | May 26, 2012, 10:28 AM EDT
Will you please stop with this Obama is Irish nonsense.he is a mudcat,probably born in Kenya,and uses some ancient past association of a nebulous Irish past for votes.
BrianO | May 26, 2012, 08:40 AM EDT
Ciardexy, you have a great wit, To be more specific obama's birth father is from kenya which would make him kenyan-American, the washington post would describe him as white- African-American, and harvard would describe him as African American. JFK and Obama have the most name recognition which is why they lead a poll and BYTHEBAY are you ready, most Americans who voted for Obama didn't know who Pelosi,Reid,Barney Frank, or Biden were. But polls are what they are and it's a cute piece, I'll vote for che he puts out a nice tee shirt and I hear the'll be a take away che next to his statue in Galway
89west | May 26, 2012, 07:19 AM EDT
ciaradexy...........what is your definition of Irish???
ciaradexy | May 26, 2012, 05:40 AM EDT
Peggy, Obama IS black! Are you blind or just stupid? You dont have to be white to have an irish ancestor. Still doesnt make him irish though, pretty much like the majority on this site though.
Searlit | May 25, 2012, 11:16 PM EDT
JFK always gets my vote.
irishpjk | May 25, 2012, 03:42 PM EDT
I agree with torbreezy on the Churchill part but I have to disagree on Regan part, G W. Bush gave Ron a run for his money and in my not so humble opinion beat or tied him. The people were mislead by the Ted Kennedy ilk and the leftwing liberal media, so G W got a bad rap. We need to look at where they are taking us and get out and vote. We need to go in the opposite direction to where Europe is, and stop borrowing money from China.
torbreezy | May 25, 2012, 02:10 PM EDT
. . . am reminded of the Winston Churchill quote: "The best argument against democracy is to spend five minutes with the average voter." This "wisdom" could/should be applied to those polled: Ronald Reagan had no peer.
borefield | May 25, 2012, 02:06 PM EDT
OMG! There is hope for all of us come November. I really don't care what the Presidents ancestry is, (This one is not Irish) I just want a decent, honest person to be President. Obama must go.
Peggy P | May 25, 2012, 01:52 PM EDT
How could so many Irish or Irish American have no pride and consider Obama 1st a "Top Leader" 2nd of "Irish Ancestry". His irish roots are so minute that he does not even consider himself white never mind Irish. In all his school application he has always checked off black. Oh, but then that was maybe to get ahaed of all his white Irish cousins who had to get in the back of the line. Wake Up!!!
MegK311 | May 25, 2012, 01:14 PM EDT
You have to be kidding. Obama is disaster. John Kennedy was a very popular President but he wasn't President long enough for us to know whether he was a great President. Ronald Regan was a great president.
Opoets99 | May 25, 2012, 12:43 PM EDT
What village idiots did they contact for this poll?
Bythebay | May 25, 2012, 12:32 PM EDT
Love the so-called "International Poll" of Britons and Americans. Not really an international poll or reflective of what the result would be if it was a real international poll!
slainte9 | May 25, 2012, 12:19 PM EDT
Thank God they forgot Woodrow Wilson, but my first vote would have been for the Duke of Wellington, or Daniel O'Connell, the liberator, who inspired Gandhi. Leaving out Daniel O'Connell is like leaving Lincoln off the list of greatest Americans. Then there's the "small" matter of Edmund Burke. Who says the Irish never forget.
SeamusMor | May 25, 2012, 11:55 AM EDT
High King Brian Boru, the first and only ruler to unite Ireland, lived the greatest Irish life! The rest are midgets compared to him.
Murph46 | May 25, 2012, 11:24 AM EDT
On top of it Seanmor!
Seanmor | May 25, 2012, 09:54 AM EDT
Jack Kennedy certainly deserved the # 1 spot among popular leaders. I'm very proud that he was my Commander-in-Chief when I honarably (and proudly) served in the Marine Corps. I don't know why the current White House occupant, a strong supporter of abortion and same-sex marriage, is included in this list. He should be thrown out along with Marxits Guevara, and be replaced by Andrew Jackson and Fr. Flanagan of Boystown.