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Undoubtedly intended as a compliment in the Protestant-dominated yard, the comparison of Grant to the Puritan general would not endear Grant to Ireland's Catholics, who were weaned on stories of Cromwell's reputed slaughter of Irish Catholics in the mid-17th century. The incident underscored the sensibilities that Grant navigated during his five-day journey through Ireland, the first by a Republican president to the Emerald Isle. Grant, 56, was then contemplating a run for a third presidential term, and, as presidential aspirants still do, was wooing the Irish-American voting bloc. After Grant's whirlwind tours of England -- highlighted by enormous welcoming crowds in London, Birmingham, Newcastle, and Manchester, and visits with Queen Victoria -- to increase his electability, he could not ignore Ireland. The Ohio native faced an uphill task with these voters, many of whom emigrated to America to escape the ravages of The Great Famine and the indignities of British domination of their homeland. Many Irish in America saw Grant as biased toward Britain, as many today see another Republican president, George W. Bush, tilting toward the United Kingdom in Northern Irish affairs. While Grant had some negatives as far as Irish-American voters went, in his favor, he had some Irish ancestry, which likely cemented his interest in making the visit. His maternal grandfather John Simpson, was born in Dergenagh, County Tyrone, and immigrated to America in 1760.
As far as the bulk of the Irish in Ireland were concerned, though, Grant was a most welcome and notable visitor, and they welcomed him, as did virtually all locals did on his 27-country itinerary. A notable exception was Cork, but more on that later. Grant was then probably the most famous American in the world. He had embarked on an unprecedented journey for an American statesman. Just after leaving the White House in March 1877, Grant traveled from May 1877 to September 1879. Ireland was the 21st country on his itinerary. After a leg of the trip that included Gibraltar, Spain, Portugal, Paris and London, Grant and his small party headed for Ireland before heading for India and the Far East. Grant landed in Dublin on January 3, from London, with a stop in Holyhead, Wales, sailing on the "Wild Irishman," a steamer, on the regular mail route. New York Herald journalist John Russell Young, who traveled throughout Ireland with Grant, depicted the ex-president's reception as friendly throughout. But Young, like Grant biographers more than a century later, glossed over the Ireland visit. Indeed, it was not all sweetness and light.
Wasting no time, Grant started on a tour of Dublin the morning of his arrival, visiting the Royal Irish Academy; The Bank of Ireland in College Green, where Grant asked a lot of questions about banking and monetary policy; the Stock Exchange; the Chamber of Commerce, where Grant caught up on news from home with telegrams; and Sackville Street. He stayed at the Shelbourne Hotel, still one of Ireland's toniest lodgings. WGT READ MORE ABOUT ULYSSES S. GRANT AND THE IRISH: This page was produced by Joseph E. Gannon, with research assistance from Frank Scaturro and Gerry Regan. Copyright © 2004 by GAR Media LLC and the author. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior permission from the author. Direct questions about permissions to permissions@garmedia.com.
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