Obama song a YouTube hit

2008-11-10 22:09

Dublin - A song trumpeting US president-elect Barack Obama's ancestral Irish roots has become a surprise hit on video-sharing website YouTube.

There's no-one as Irish as Barack Obama, has had over 600 000 hits on YouTube, many added since the Democrat became the first black candidate to be voted US president last week.

The song, which creatively rhymes "Obama" with "O'Hara", is the work of Irish band Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys from Limerick in southwest Ireland who describe themselves as "a rag taggle bunch of dropouts and misfits".

They played at an election night gig in a pub in Moneygall, a small town in central Ireland from where a local clergyman, citing official records, says Obama's ancestor Fulmuth Kearney emigrated in 1850.

The band say they have been invited to Washington DC by Irish-American Democrats to play at an inauguration party on January 19.

Here are some of the lyrics:

"O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara

There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama.

You don't believe me, I hear you say

But Barack's as Irish, as was JFK.

His granddaddy's daddy came from Moneygall

A small Irish village, well known to you all.

Toor a loo, toor a loo, toor a loo, toor a lama

There's no one as Irish As Barack O'Bama.

He's as Irish as bacon and cabbage and stew

He's Hawaiian, he's Kenyan, American too.

He's in the white house, He took his chance

Now let's see Barack do Riverdance."

If Obama's Irish roots are confirmed, he will be following in the footsteps of other presidents with an Irish heritage like Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy.

- AFP