Sarah Palin gets her Irish up in new book

"Going Rogue" set to settle a few old scores

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Sarah Palin is about to settle a few scores with her book, "Going Rogue," which will be published next week.

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• Robert Reynolds column / Sarah Palin goes for broke with 'Going Rogue' / Click here

Sarah Palin releases her new book 'Going Rogue' this week, and judging by the reviews she really gets her Irish up. John McCain, the media, the Democratic Party,  the know alls in Washington all get it loud and clear from the former Alaska governor.

Palin's fiery side could be attributed to her Irish roots. Her genealogical ties to the Emerald Isle have been well researched, and she has referred to them in several interviews.

Palin, 45, was born Sarah Heath in Sandpoint, Idaho, the daughter of Sarah Heath (née Sheeran), a school secretary, and Charles Heath, a science teacher and track coach. Her family moved to Alaska when she was an infant. Palin has strong English, Irish and German ancestry.

According to genealogist Meghan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Palin’s family on her mother’s side (the Sheerans) emigrated from Ireland to the U.S. in the mid 1800s.

“After doing some poking around I found that Michael Sheeran emigrated in the 1840s,” Smolenyak told the Irish Voice newspaper in September, 2008.

Although not sure what part of Ireland Michael came from and still unclear where he first arrived to, Smolenyak said that he and his wife Mary wound up in Vermont in 1852, then moved to Illinois and then Minnesota, which is where the family settled.

And the trail doesn’t end there. Smolenyak, through her work with Ancestory.com, discovered that Michael and Mary’s son, Michael junior married a Maria Ellen Burke, whose parents were also born in Ireland.

Although it is believed Palin, who was elected governor of Alaska in 2006, never visited Ireland, some reports have stated that she did stop over at Shannon Airport in July, 2007 while en route to visit with soldiers of the Alaska National Guard’s 3rd Battalion 297th Infantry Regiment at the Life Support Area in Kuwait.

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