St Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day: 22 American Presidents Have Irish Roots!

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, and whether Irish or not, the nation tends to celebrate it, almost as if it is a national holiday.

It turns out that fully half of our 43 Presidents–a total of 22– have Irish roots, including:

George Washington
James Madison
Andrew Jackson
James K. Polk
James Buchanan
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Chester Alan Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
John F. Kennedy
Richard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama

It is interesting how exactly half (11) were in the Presidency before 1900, and the same number (11) since 1900, with nine of the modern eleven Irish Presidents with Irish roots since 1961!