In the recent election campaign, the Democrat John Kerry had to deny rumors he was Irish. But Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy played the Irish card. And Bill Clinton, perhaps aware that portraits of JFK hung beside the Pope above rural Irish fireplaces, once punched the air at a St Patrick's Day parade, declaring: "I feel more Irish each day."
The jury is out on whether Strongbow had a "conquering" gene that drove him to invade. Michael Staunton, a lecturer in history at University College Dublin, felt Strongbow was simply desperate.
"It was a typical colonial situation, the people who don't have much going for them decided to hop off to another country."
Perhaps the most worrying question in New Ross is whether Bush now has a claim on Leinster.
"Yes of course, he probably does," Ms Griffin Bernstorff said. "But there are other families in the area who have a claim and neighbors and friends here would put up a pretty stiff fight."
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