Thread by @IrishPolMaps

Half of all US Presidents (22 out of 44) have made claims of Irish ancestry. Like a lot of things in history, the evidence is stronger for some than it is for others, but here's a rundown of which Presidents come from where... #VOTE #USElection #USElections2020 #Biden #Trump

With ten Presidents - from #7, Andrew Jackson to #43, George W. Bush - Antrim is the county boasting the most presidential ancestry. In each case, the ancestors were themselves descended from settlers from the Ulster Plantation in the 17th century.

Many people in Ulster are very proud of this part of their heritage. There are a number of sites in Antrim related to their famous descendants, including Andrew Jackson's parents' cottage in Boneybefore.

Tyrone has the next highest number - being home to the ancestors of Presidents James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant and Woodrow Wilson - below is Wilson's grandparents' cottage near Strabane. He was proud of his "Irish blood" and his "Scottish conscience".

Rounding out Ulster for now, President James Polk's ancestors emigrated from Coleraine, Co. Derry. Presidents Benjamin Harrison (1889-93), Warren Harding (1921-3) and Harry Truman (1945-53) also claimed Ulster roots, though it's not known exactly where their ancestors came from.

Moving south, President William H. Taft's ancestor Robert Taft emigrated to America from Co. Louth in the mid 1600s.

Famously, President John F. Kennedy was the first Irish-American Catholic to sit in the Oval Office. His great-grandparents Patrick Kennedy and Bridget Murphy emigrated from New Ross, Co. Wexford to Boston in the aftermath of the Great Famine.

Kennedy was the first US President to make an official visit to Ireland in June 1963 - greeting crowds in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and his ancestral home in Wexford.

Richard Nixon is one of the ten Presidents to have Antrim roots, but he also had ancestors from Timahoe, Co. Kildare. He visited this town during his 1970 visit to Ireland. @nixonfoundation

The next American president to visit Ireland was Ronald Reagan in 1984 - like Kennedy and Nixon before him, he visited his ancestral home town of Ballyporeen in Co. Tipperary.

Going back to Ulster for a second - Bill Clinton claimed ancestry from Co. Fermanagh, though there are no solid records of this. Nonetheless, Clinton played a large role in the Northern Irish peace process during his presidency, for which he is well regarded in Ireland.

According to Wikipedia, aside from their Antrim ancestry, the Bushes claim descent from the Norman lord Strongbow and his Gaelic wife Aoife Ní Diarmait, heiress of Leinster - they lived 900 years ago so they have very many descendants (including one of us!)

More recently, President Barack Obama made a state visit to Ireland in 2011, making a stop at Moneygall, Co. Offaly - home of one of his maternal ancestors. He gave a well-received speech in Dublin where he invoked his famous campaign slogan as Gaeilge - "is féidir linn!"

President Trump has no Irish roots (though his mother was a native Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Lewis in Scotland). His only Irish connection is his golf course in Doonbeg, Co. Claire - to which he was first welcomed by then-Finance Minister Michael Noonan in a... unique way.

Joe Biden, seen below with Irish President Michael D. Higgins, has Irish roots on his mother's side - with ancestors coming from Louth, Galway and Mayo. If elected, he'll be the second Irish-American Catholic to sit in the Oval Office.