What would you do if you met the wife of the US Ambassador to Ireland in your local town, and you were related to the diplomat? I suggest that you just might ask her a favour.
That is what happened yesterday on the streets of Keenagh, Co Longford, when the ambassador, Mr Michael J. Sullivan, made his first visit to the land of his mother's people.
Accompanied by his wife, Jane, the ambassador was surrounded by Geraghtys, McCanns, Beltons, Scallys and Murphys, and a man called Anthony Moran. All claimed some degree of relationship to him.
Under the famous tower of Keenagh, Anthony Moran suggested to Ms Sullivan that she might be able to find him a wife to look after him in his old age. It was that kind of day.
Indeed, it was an emotional day for the stetson-wearing man from Wyoming, who confessed that he had not expected to be so moved at the "homecoming". His day had started in the town of Longford, where he met local politicians, including Deputy Louis Belton, who is a relative on his mother's side.
The ambassador's great-great grandfather, Richard Geraghty, whose mother was a Belton, left Ireland in 1854, like millions of others seeking a new life.
At the bottom of the town of Keenagh, the ambassador and his wife visited the pub from where Richard Geraghty left to seek his fortune. It is known locally as "The El Paso".
"I did not know there were any cowboys here," said the ambassador to laughter.
Then it was on to where his people had their deepest roots, in Corlea, out on the boglands between Lanesboro and Bally mahon. The ambassador and his wife marvelled at the site of an Iron Age road, laid down sometime after 148 BC, nearly 200 years before Christ was crucified, and wondered why it had been built there.
The former governor of Wyoming, and a lawyer who knows the hard edge of politics, confessed that he had no idea the visit would have been so emotional for him, a lawyer who knows the hard edge of politics.
"Since I came to Ireland I have been learning about Ireland but I have also been learning about myself. I feel the Irish thing and then, when I meet my relatives, I know it is for real," he said.
"I am also astonished at the beauty of the country. There is a surprise around every corner and as someone who has come from fairly flat country, I find this amazing." Part of that discovery was the Belton clan, an Irish political dynasty. The ambassador could easily relate to that. His grandmother was a political activist and nominated Roosevelt from her state at a Democratic Party convention.
"I was really moved when I went to Cobh and my paternal roots are in Castletownbere. This is different but equally as important to me," he said.
The reality of the Irish-American links were highlighted even more strongly when, over an intimate lunch in Ireland's tidiest town, Ardagh, the ambassador was told of the recovery of the body of John F. Kennedy jnr.
He spoke about that in Corlea as he looked out over the bogs which would have been worked by his forefathers. "I never met John Kennedy but, like many people of my generation, the image of him saluting his father's coffin will always be with me," he said. He had met Ted Kennedy on a number of occasions. The first time was in his native state when Ted was canvassing for his brother John to receive the presidential nomination.
"As has already been said, no family have suffered more or given as much as the Kennedys or provided as much inspiration," he said.
While in Longford, the ambassador officially opened the 15th annual Goldsmith summer school in Ballymahon, which will run for the next four days.