Ambassador Rooney was on a visit to Kilkenny city Wednesday, November 18, home to the tomb of Obama's long lost relative, Bishop John Kearney. He said he has asked Obama to visit Ireland.

United States Supreme Court Justice John Roberts and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley were among the distinguished guests at the Irish Voice’s Irish Legal 100 reception held last Wednesday evening, November 11, at the Washington, D.C. residence of the Irish Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Collins.

Meet the Irish American Princess. She’s Catholic, she’s wealthy, she’s popular – and she’s way out of your league.

The Irish have made their mark on Manhattan for centuries, building the skyscrapers, policing the streets and eventually running city hall. That’s why when you visit the Big Apple you won’t be short of fascinating historical sites of enduring importance to the Irish.

Funny man Will Ferrell wants to buy his very own British pub wants to buy his own traditional English (not Irish?!) inn close to the west London home of his favorite soccer team, Chelsea.

The Irish premiere of Kilkenny man Gabriel Murray's documentary on the Irish heritage of U.S. president Barack Obama will be screened on Sunday as part of the Waterford Film Festival.

Some celebrities are obviously Irish - think Conan O'Brien, Denis Leary and Maureen Dowd, while others, like President Obama, are a little harder to spot. Check out our gallery of the incognito Irish to see who's joining Obama in the unlikely Irish list!

After a 10-year wait that felt like an eternity, the moment that Irish Americans have been waiting for has finally arrived: the Boondock Saints are back with a bang.

Tom Brady has been talking up his Irish heritage ahead of leading his New England Patriots out against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley in London this Sunday.

The name Connolly is derived from several different roots. In Connaught and Monaghan it derives from the Gaelic O'Coingeallaigh. Both are anglicized to Connolly although the spelling form Connelly is often found in Galway.

The original Irish name is " Coimn and its variations are numerous in every part of Ireland. The name lends itself to many interpretations. Some say it comes from the Irish word cam, meaning crooked, while others incorrectly believed the name derived from the word camán, which means a hurling stick.

These three names and others of a similar sound such as Donnellan and Donlon are sometimes confused, as spelling variations have occurred among emigrant families. They are, however, totally distinct, and indeed both the McDonnells and O'Donnells are made up of several distinct septs. The main branch of the O'Donnells, based in Donegal, is the most eminent of the Gaelic families, leading back to Niall of the Nine Hostages, but owing their name to one Domhnaill.

Glamorous Irish-American actress and model Megan Fox, 23, has been confirmed to replace Victoria Beckham as the female face of Armani next year.

He might be one of the most famous people ever "Born in the USA" but Bruce Springsteen is Irish! A new book has discovered that Springsteen has Irish roots through his paternal grandmother Martha O'Hagan. She married Springsteen's grandfather, Anthony Springsteen, who was of Dutch ancestry, in 1899. And it turns out that Martha's grandmother, Ann Garrity, hailed from County Westmeath.

Megan Smolenyak, the same genealogist who discovered that President Obama’s Irish roots go back to Moneygall in County Offaly, has discovered that the family tree of the First Lady, Michelle Obama, has a large Irish branch.

Tony-winning Irish actor Jim Norton has returned to Broadway in Finian’s Rainbow, a joyful big-budget revival of a golden-era classic that’s become that rare thing: an almost critic-proof Broadway musical. Cahir O'Coherty talks to the veteran Irish actor and his A-list Broadway castmates about starring in the most hotly-anticipated show of the season.

Irish American actor Martin Sheen will go back to his roots with his next movie, "Stella Days." Sheen, who will star as Fr Daniel Barry, will be shooting "Stella Days" in the tiny town of Borrisokane in

The death of Ted Kennedy precedes by three weeks the end of John Sweeney’s 14-year tenure as president of the AFL-CIO. Together, these events signal the end of an epoch in American political history: that of Irish American leadership of the nation’s liberal institutions and Democratic organizations.

Internet gossip sites are all abuzz about Lindsay Lohan’s premature aging. Recent pictures show the Irish-American actress looking a bit worse for the wear.

It is fitting that the 1969 Nobel Prize for literature went to the Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett. After all, in works such as "Waiting for Godot" and "Endgame," Beckett alternated between tragedy and comedy, drama and farce. The same could be said about 1969.

Chief Family Historian for Ancestry.com Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak got the assignment of a lifetime when it was discovered in 2007 that future President of the U.S. Barack Obama had Irish roots. Smolenyak’s job? To find out where in Ireland Obama’s family came from.

Although the surname Joyce may automatically be associated with author James Joyce, the name has an ancient past, with both Irish and Norman antecedents. Derived from the Brehon personal name Iodoc, which is a diminutive of iudh meaning lord, the name was adopted by the Normans in the form Josse.

The name Fahy is O'Fathaigh in Gaelic, and probably originates from the word fothadh which means base or foundation. Another rarer English version of the name is Vahey and occasionally Fay, which has a different root except for occasional instances in Galway.

He’s American and Korean, but U.S. Army Sergeant Seamus O’Fianghusa considers himself an Irishman through and through. As the fluent Gaelic speaker prepares for a deployment to Afghanistan, he talks about his love for all things Irish.

An American tourist died after falling on Skellig Michael in County Kerry on Sunday. The 57-year-old woman fell while walking with her husband on the island.

As Irish associations and societies across the country dwindle in numbers due to lack of immigration and other factors, a number of organizations in New York are taking measures to ensure their longevity. The Irish American Center in Mineola, Long Island, is no exception. President May O’Boyle Deegan, 48, whose parents are from Co. Donegal, said that the center is worried about its future.

The Moran clan have produced some very interesting folk. The anglicized "Moran" can be traced to multiple distinct Irish names, and though commonly linked to County Mayo, forms of the name originated throughout middle Ireland in Counties Leitrim, Galway, Kildare, Offaly, and more. Moran is so heavily anglicized - from the French "Morrin" to the Irish "Moran" - that exact knowledge of each Moran's lineage may be hard to trace.

The name Haughey is another Gaelic name, in this case deriving from the Irish O'hEachaidh. The clan were prominent in both Donegal and Armagh. The name has been anglicized in several forms in different areas and is now found as Haughey, Haffey, Hoy and Hoey.

Keough, Keogh, Kehoe, O'Hoey, Hoy, Haughy, Haugh and MacKeogh are all derivatives of the Irish surname Mac Eochaidh. The clan originated in Leinster, and the name is common in County Wexford, and in the Munster counties of Limerick and Tipperary, where the Irish spelling is MagCeoch or MacCeoch. In medieval times the MacKeoghs from Leinster moved from Kildare to Wicklow and then down to Wexford.

Kelleher exists also as Keliher, Kellaher, Kelliher, etc. The modern forms of the name are derived from the Irish name O Ceileachair, from ceileachar, which means "uxorious," or "excessively fond of one's wife."

New York local politics will get a major Irish boost on Tuesday when Deirdre Feerick, a second-generation Irish American, squares off against two other Irish-American candidates in the September 15 Democratic primary election in Queens to succeed well known Council Member Eric Gioia who has endorsed her.

Based on family names and individual stories, there are many hundreds of American dead with Irish heritage, including Americans who through parents or grandparents had become Irish citizens. 

This is a tribute to several of these brave Irish men and women.

THE Irish government has measured up to its recent statements about the importance of the global Irish by scheduling a high profile conference for the weekend of September 18 in Dublin. The reaction to the government invitation to its forum has been excellent, with over 180 business leaders from all corners of the globe agreeing to attend in what will surely be an historic weekend.

“[T]he Kennedys were the spiritual and political leaders of the most nauseating, ignorant and sentimental of any US ethnic minority.” Do you recognize yourselves in that description? Didn't think so, but that's how the Irish Independent's Kevin Myers described us this week.

It was his handshake I’ll never forget, solid and strong. The event was an Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform (ILIR) rally in Washington D.C. in March 2006. Although I was slightly intimidated by the enormity of the situation and those all around me, I was somewhat comforted by the presence of Senator Ted Kennedy and his vivacious handshake.

A mystery revolving around President Barack Obama’s Irish roots was solved when a tomb containing the remains of Obama’s Irish ancestor was discovered in the Irish medieval city of Kilkenny.

The first wife of sex fiend and accused kidnapper Phillip Garrido, an Irish American named Christine Murphy, has come forward with details of her disturbed marriage with the criminal.

Irish-American actor John Cusack recently took a three-week vacation to Ireland to celebrate his mom’s 80th birthday, and luckily for his fans, he Tweeted his thoughts and pictures along the way.

Yankees captain Derek Jeter and his partner, actress Minka Kelly, have reportedly told their friends and family to “save the date” for their wedding this fall.

Irish-American actress Megan Fox is reported to have signed on to play Catwoman in the upcoming untitled third “Batman” film.

An elite group of the nation's top Irish-American business leaders were honored Monday evening at the prestigious Wall Street 50 annual awards dinner, co-hosted by Irish America magazine and business communications firm FTI. Now in its 12th year, the event recognizes the honorees' outstanding achievements, business successes, civic accomplishments and commitment to their Irish heritage as criteria for their inclusion on the distinguished annual list. Held at the famed

Senator Edward Kennedy - who freely acknowledged that his own family would not be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. now - was a real champion for the undocumented Irish.

No family has dominated American politics more in this century than the Kennedys, a clan which influenced the shaping of a nation to a degree rarely matched.

An elite group of the nation’s top Irish-American business leaders will be honored this evening at the prestigious Wall Street 50 annual awards dinner, co-hosted by Irish America magazine and business communications firm FTI.

Why have certain Irish names, like Cornelius and Bridget, practically vanished over the past century and others, like Sean and Aoife, have taken such firm root in Ireland? This is what a new RTE documentary entitled “One Hundred Years of Names” set out to investigate, and the answers are fascinating.

Michael Madsen, the actor most commonly known as Mr. Blonde from Quentin Tarantino’s "Reservoir Dogs," felt like he was "coming home" while making his movie, “Strength and Honor," in Ireland.

John Sweeney, head of the AFL/CIO, is stepping down shortly, but don't expect him to retire and fade away. Word is that Sweeney will be getting a big job in the Obama administration

There was a major attack on Irish America in the Irish Times last Saturday, purporting to be an insider view on how Irish America has been misleading the Irish government. The article concludes by stating, “For too long official

Irish and Irish-Americans alike tend to be immensely proud of their surnames. But which last names win in the battle of Irishness? Here are the top 10 most popular Irish last names.

Muhammad Ali is set to visit the home of his Irish ancestors in County Clare when he visits the country at the end of August.