In a Word...Ancestry
Sometimes I wonder if we Irish have finally lost it. Pope Leo, or Bob the Pope as some prefer to call him, was elected on May 8th and still there is not a hint of an Irish link.
How can it be possible that a man who was born, grew up and was educated in
Chicago
has no Irish connection?
If links with Ireland could be found in the ancestry of
Muhammad Ali
and
Barack Obama
, how is it not possible where Robert Prevost is concerned?
Has no one checked his Norman ancestry, for instance? Some of his people came from Normandy in the north-west of
France
. Surely some of that Norman band who invaded Ireland with Strongbow in 1169 had to have a connection.
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You know, like the Fitzgeralds – all the Fitzes – the Burkes , D'Altons, D'Arcys, Prendergasts, Powers, Butlers, Joyces, Barretts, Dillons, etc. All those sons and daughters of our invaders who went on to become more Irish than ourselves.
Let's face it, whatever about Ali and Obama, if they could find Irish ancestry in the background of
Richard Nixon
they surely should be able to find it in the DNA of Robert Prevost.
What? You never knew Nixon had Irish ancestry? No one talks about that anymore.
Nixon celebrated his Irish ancestry too. That, of course, was before the unfortunate business which led to his resignation as US president in 1974. In disgrace.
He visited Ireland in 1970 and had eggs thrown at him in Dublin. Trust the Dubs, disrespecting him before it was either popular or profitable.
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What next for top Irish Vatican clerics under Pope Leo XIV?
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In a Word... Language
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They weren't like that at the Quaker burial ground in Hodgestown, near Timahoe, Co Kildare, where he went to pay his respects to the ancestors of his mother, Hannah Milhous.
While there, he spoke of the Quaker passion for peace and how his greatest purpose as US president was 'to bring peace not only to America, but to all the world'.
Some things never change.
And peace was the first thing Pope Leo XIV spoke of on making his debut on May 8th. And still not a hint of Irish blood in him.
Not good enough!
Ancestry
, from Old French
ancesserie,
Latin
antecessor
, for `predecessor.'
inaword@irishtimes.com
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