Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady welcomed the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his wife Mary O’Shea to the residence for a time-honored traditional breakfast, but he did not refer to his Irish heritage.
During the breakfast, Vance recalled visiting Ireland in October 2023 with his wife while he was a senator.
‘It’s such a remarkable combination of incredible community of beautiful landscape but also a lot of technological growth,’ he said.
Vance wore a special pair of green-clover socks for the visit and revealed his wife Usha finally got to wear her unique pair of green pants for the occasion.
‘It’s also a really great opportunity for Usha to wear this pair of green pants, she’s had these in the close for years and finally gets to bring them out,’ he said with a chuckle.
But Martin specifically mentioned Vance’s heritage during his remarks.
‘Scots-Irish emigrants, among them your forebears, played a key role in shaping this country,’ he said.
Martin said he would be ‘honored and delighted’ to welcome the Vance family back to Ireland.
Vance’s ancestors emigrated from Ireland, as he mentioned in his famous 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
‘To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart,’ he wrote.
Vance’s ancestors migrated Barnbarroch in Wigtonshire, Scotland to the Northern Ulster province of Ireland before they traveled to the United States, according to Tyrone historian John Hagan.
‘Is he aware that a small village in rural Tyrone is his ancestral home – very unlikely, but whether successful or not in the forthcoming elections I would love him to visit Coagh,’ Hagan told Northern Ireland world in 2024.
John Vance first obtained a lease for land in the province and his eldest son Andrew emigrated to America 1733 with his wife and 18-year-old son Ephraim.
The Vance family settled in Lancaster County Pennsylvania and Ephraim Vance established Fort Vause to help defend their farm during the French and Indian war.
Irish Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was expected to present Vance with an official history of his ancestral links to Ireland but the vice president’s office did not confirm that he received it.