KAMALA Harris' presidential running mate Tim Walz has Irish roots, but it’s unclear exactly where they lie.
The man who could well be the USA’s next Vice President has possible links to Co. Wexford, but exactly where in the county has given rise to some debate.
American genealogist Megan Smolenyak has been tracking politicians' roots since Barack Obama first ran for president in 2008 and helped trace the Offaly roots of one great-great-great grandfather. She also helped Joe Biden confirm his Irish roots in Co. Mayo and Co. Louth.
BBC News NI now reports that Smolenyak believes Walz has roots in Ferns, Co. Wexford. But local genealogists suggest it is Kilmore, some 52km down the road.
Ms Smolenyak told BBC News NI that Mr Walz was "about 1/8th Irish", pointing out that his ancestors moved to Wisconsin, Iowa and Nebraska. She said, according to records, Mr Walz's great-grandmother was called Laura Ellen Sullivan from Ferns.
Mr Walz becomes the second running mate with claimed ancestry from Ireland in this year's presidential election. Donald Trump described his choice of running mate as JD Vance, a 'Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart'.
Co. Wexford can already claim one former president as John F Kennedy's family hailed from Dunganstown in the county.
Each one of President Kennedy's eight great-grandparents was born in Ireland and moved to Massachusetts in search of a better life around the time of the Great Famine.
Kamala Harris, who is battling Donald Trump for the presidency, has roots in Co. Antrim. Harris’ father Donald Harris, a retired Stanford University economics professor who emigrated from Jamaica in 1961, said the Harris family descends from that plantation owner Hamilton Brown, born in Antrim in 1776.
