Soul Bakery's Obama Bread, Other Items on Sale as Excitement Builds for President Obama & Wife's Visit to Ancestral Home in Moneygall, Ireland

Excitement builds in President Obama's ancestral home in village of Moneygall, Ireland, ahead of free public event he and First Lady Michelle Obama will headline, commemorative items on sale even Soul Bakery's Obama Bread and local newspaper changing name for one day to Obama Independent.

Soul Bakery's Obama Bread Available in Moneygall, Ireland (Reuters)

Long lines formed in Moneygall, CO Offaly, Ireland, for residents seeking tickets to see President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, when they visit his ancestral home on Monday, where he will deliver a speech. Who said the president wasn't popular overseas? According to Irish Independent newspaper, only residents of the rural community could get tickets to the public event. Obamamania has hit Ireland!

Mr Obama's distant cousin Henry Healy emerged first with ticket number 001. Complete with a gold-coloured border, the ticket states: "You are invited to celebrate the visit of the President of the United States of America Barack Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama to the President's ancestral home of Moneygall, Co Offaly."

Mr Healy (26) has championed his village since he first heard it had a connection to the president in 2007. Throughout Mr Obama's election campaign, Mr Healy and Moneygall, with a population of 350, adopted the Kenyan-Irish-American. Source: Irish Independent

Obama fever seems to have taken over the village, where some residents have painted their homes like the Stars and Stripes and commemorative items are available such as mugs, t-shirts, and even bread -- Soul Bakery's Obama Bread. Local newspaper Offaly Independent has even changed its name temporarily for the first time in 119 years to the Obama Independent and will be sold Friday as a souvenir edition. It's rather fitting that Obama should be visiting Moneygall, since we know he will be raking in a lot of money for his reelection campaign. If anything, this is a great geography lesson for our kids -- Moneygall is actually worth knowing about, since the nation's first black president has deep roots in such a rural village. His great-great-great-great grandfather was a shoemaker in Moneygall  and his son emigrated to New York in 1850.

It is amazing that we have conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck saying Obama doesn't like whites, but yet he is going to visit his ancestral home that is lily-white. Crazy.