Irish quarter
Is there any such thing as a US president without Irish roots? The US genealogist Gary Boyd Roberts has researched the origins of all US presidents and concluded that 20 of the 44 US presidents had some Irish family connections. Half of these, however, have been within the past 50 years.
— Until the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961 only 11 out of 34 presidents had had some Irish blood. Since then, nine out of ten presidents have had some Irish ancestry, although it is tenuous in the case of Bill Clinton, in spite of his claim: ‘I mean, I’m sort of… I look Irish’.
— The last entirely non-Irish president was Gerald Ford (in office 1974-1977) who was born Lesley Lynch King in Omaha, Nebraska, and later changed his name to match that of his stepfather. Ford never visited Ireland as president, but then was only president for 29 months.
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