Scion of traitors and warlords: why Bush is coy about his Irish links

[emad]

Tapestry artist reveals ancestors of US president as murderous bunch

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Thursday January 27, 2005
The Guardian

It is perhaps not the best omen for US foreign affairs. Local historians in Wexford have discovered that George Bush is a descendant of Strongbow, the power-hungry warlord who led the Norman invasion of Ireland thus heralding 800 years of mutual misery. With a long line of Scots Irish presidents including Woodrow Wilson, the Irish are normally quick to claim US leaders as their own. But, despite President Bush's large Ulster Scots vote in the American Bible belt, Ireland had let his family escape the genealogical microscope.

But now Ann Griffin Bernstorff, an artist working on a tapestry to commemorate Ireland's Norman heritage, has discovered what she claims is the Bushs' missing Irish link.

Ms Griffin Bernstorff was researching Strongbow's son-in-law, William Marshal, when she discovered the connection. A descendant of Marshal married Anne Marbury Hutchinson, a famous 16th century religious dissenter who had already been linked to Mr Bush.

"It is one of those bizarre developments," she said. "We traced the Bush genealogy through a Republican source in Chicago and found it was correct. People here are absolutely shocked. I'm not sure what the wider reaction will be, Bush has not been seen as a great friend of the Irish."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1399353,00.html

[emad]

1. How Strongbow started family line

Angelique Chrisafis
Thursday January 27, 2005
The Guardian

After Richard de Clare's bloody band of knights and archers successfully invaded Ireland in 1169, they demanded their reward. Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster - whom history would remember as the great Irish traitor - duly handed over his daughter Aoife. Renowned for her beauty, Aoife was swiftly married to the Norman De Clare, whose skill as a warlord had earned him the name Strongbow.

For generations, the De Clare clan continued to marry down through noble families in Ireland and England. In the 16th century, the De Clare branch met the English branch of George W Bush's family tree in Anne Marbury Hutchinson. The daughter of an Anglican priest in Lincolnshire, Hutchinson travelled to America in 1634, where she led a rebellion against the repressive religious rules of the Massachusetts Bay colony. Leading a band of followers in her own interpretation of the Bible, she was eventually banished from the colony. After settling in New York, she was killed by Native Americans in 1643.

Hutchinson's descendants married into the Bush family in the 19th century.

By 1907, Samuel Prescott Bush, who made his career in the railroad business, was president of the Buckeye Steel Castings Company in Columbus, Ohio. He was the first president of the National Association of Manufacturers and a close adviser to President Hoover.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1399347,00.html

[TolstoyAndy]

7. Hoover

...Samuel Prescott Bush...a close adviser to President Hoover.


The irony is delicious as we slowly climb our way out of the Bush depression.

[bear425]

2. Very interesting, thanks for posting. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

3. I'm sure the Irish are very proud....

cough, cough :eyes:

[ooglymoogly]

4. checking a little further back

the lineage goes directly back to satan

[TR Fan]

6. Not to silk? n/t

[ooglymoogly]

8. thnx

[AngryAmish]

5. The blood taint is upon him