[5][6] The village received international attention for being the ancestral home of Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great-grandfather of Barack Obama.

[8] As of 2019, bus service 854, operated by Local Link Tipperary between Roscrea railway station and Nenagh, called at Main Street and Obama Plaza.

The former Church of Ireland school (now used as a parish hall) was built in 1888 beside the R490 Borrisokane turn-off, and closed in 1976, when its pupils were transferred to the neighbouring village of Cloughjordan.

[14] Falmouth Kearney, a maternal great-great-great-grandfather of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, emigrated from Moneygall to New York City at the age of 19 in 1850 and eventually resettled in Tipton County, Indiana.

Falmouth Kearney's youngest daughter, Mary Ann, moved from Indiana to Kansas after her father's death in 1878.

Mary Ann Kearney was the paternal grandmother of Stanley Dunham, President Obama's maternal grandfather.

[17] Following a walkabout on the main street, where they shook hands with many local residents, the Obamas entered a house that had been built on the site where Falmouth Kearney had lived.

Afterwards, they visited Ollie Hayes's pub to meet more of the President's distant relatives and to study the birth records of his ancestors.