President Obama could be set to return to Ireland.

In an interview today with RTE’s Marian Finucane, out-going US Ambassador Kevin O’Malley confirmed Barack Obama has told him to “tell the Irish people he will be back”.

While no date has been set, the visit is expected to be in the near future.

Mr Obama’s great-great-great-great-grandfather was a shoemaker in the rural village on Moneygall in Co Offaly and his son, Falmouth Kearney, left for New York in 1850.

Canon Neill, of the 200-year-old Templeharry church, in the nearby village of Cloughjordan unearthed the dusty records stored in an elderly parishioner’s home that firmly tied America’s first black President to Moneygall.

Nothing remains of Fulmuth Kearney’s homestead or surrounding countryside, which now has housing sites known as Kearney’s Gardens.

Obama’s eighth cousin Henry Healy said the President has told him he wants to take in a round of golf, and he’s hopeful he will be teeing off in Offaly.

“I’m sure Shane Lowry would have no problem taking the President on any tour of any golf club around the country – we’ve plenty of them, and lots of local attractions for the president to see if he wants to spend some peaceful time in the Faithful County,” he said.