By Eamon O Buadhacháin
There have been six US Presidential visits to Ireland – Obama, Clinton, Kennedy, Nixon, Reagan and Bush – but the only US President to have direct connections with Ireland was Andrew Jackson (below), the seventh President of the United States of America. His father Andrew senior was born in Carrickfergus, County Antrim, and his mother Elizabeth was also born in Northern Ireland, both of Presbyterian Scots origin. In 1765, Andrew, Elizabeth and two older sons Hugh and Robert emigrated to the United States arriving in Philadelphia.
The future President Jackson was born on March 15th, 1767, just fourteen days after the death of his father in a logging accident. His now widowed mother raised the three boys in Waxhaws, South Carolina. He was elected President in 1829, serving two terms, and he is considered to be the founder of the present day Democratic Party. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1845.
Before the thirteen colonies of the original United States of America gathered together under one President, George Washington, many of these colonies had their own Presidents and some of them were Irish born.