What kind of washery is this?

And so it begins..

This is a clip from last Friday night's RTE news. Barack Obama has very distant relatives in Moneygall, Co. Offaly so RTE sent Ray Colgan (kicking and screaming, one would hope) to Offaly to meet the locals and see how election fever has gripped that particular part of the country. I suppose you could say that it's all a bit of harmless news but it always annoys me to see Irish people setting themselves up for a bit of ridicule at the first sign of a tv camera.

"He's one of our own" said the woman holding the baby. No, love - he really isn't.

"Maybe Moneygall will be the Ballyporeen of the future" said Obama's distant relative. Well, we can all dream, can't we?

Of course the situation isn't helped by Obama himself. I was watching the news on ITV reporting from Iowa on Friday night. When the reporter approached Obama and told him he was from England, the candidate responded by saying that he had ancestors in Ireland and was looking forward to going over and having a pint someday..

It's only going to get worse. Incidentally I thought the Irish were supposed to be Clinton supporters. Seems to me like we're just backing the winning horse after it crosses the finish line. Far from being interested in US politics, we're just interested in whatever actors and rock stars tell us about US politics. As far as I can tell Irish people aren't even interested in politics here, never mind the US.

Anyway, sure isn't is all just a bit of craic..