"Obama is Irish" at the Starry Plough Now a Major YouTube Hit
by Becky O'Malley Friday October 24, 2008 - 12:41:00 PM  Shay
Black is an Irish musician who lives in Oakland just a few
blocks from the Planet office on Shattuck. He has led an Irish
music session in the nearby Starry Plough every Sunday for the
last thirteen years. Recently, he's become a YouTube celebrity.
Last month, a jolly video starring Shay was made at the Plough,
posted on YouTube and now has 250,000 hits. It's a cover of a
song originally written in Ireland which reclaims Barack Obama's
Irish roots. Here's the first verse:   "O'Leary, O'Reilly,
O'Hare and O'Hara    There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama 
From the old Blarney Stone to the green Hill of Tara   There's
no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama."    The Corrigan Brothers, who
wrote it, hail from Limerick, Ireland, where earlier this year
research into genealogical records unearthed the fact that
Barack Obama had an Irish ancestor on his mother's side, Fulmuth
Kearney, who emigrat