Barack Obama Had a Very Special Message for Ireland When He Bumped into This Irishman at The Gym
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Irish Central, 2 MAR 2019.
It’s not every day you meet a former United States president down at the gym. But that’s exactly what happened to one lucky Irishman who bumped into Barack Obama in California last week.
County Clare man Peter Barron was staying and working out in St Regis Hotel in San Francisco when he spotted someone with a strong resemblance to the two-term president.
Initially, he didn’t believe his own eyes and let Obama leave without making any contact.
However, later that night Barron saw John Legend emerge from a blacked-out car and realized some A-listers may be residing at the hotel so he made a few inquiries.
Through a friend, he heard Obama was, in fact, staying in the same hotel so when he spotted him in the gym for a second time Barron made no mistake in introducing himself.
"I kind of panicked a bit and just said you did a great job with the Barack Obama Plaza,” he said.
Obama famously visited the small Offaly village of Moneygall in 2011 after discovering his third great grandfather Falmouth Kearney, emigrated from Ireland to the US in 1850.
In 2014 an $8 million (€7 million) service station was opened on the outskirts of the village and named in Obama’s honor.
Barron told Obama he was from "just over the road" in County Clare, prompting Obama to joke that they were family.
Obama then went back to his work out but not before the former president remarked, "send all my love back to Ireland."
Read More: Barack and Michelle Obama statue unveiled in Moneygall, County Offaly
Read more: Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Irish slave owner roots
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