WASHINGTON – His jacket was only moss green but his pint was true Guinness.

President Obama tilted back a glass of the dark Irish brew Saturday, observing St. Patrick’s Day at a boisterous Irish pub with his ancestral cousin from Moneygall, Ireland, at his side.

Additional Photos

President Obama drinks a Guinness with his cousin Henry Healy, center, and the owner of the pub in Moneygall, Ireland, Ollie Hayes. The Associated Press

At the White House, the main South Lawn Fountain burbled green water. Nearby, workers prepared for a visit Tuesday by the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny.

Obama took his motorcade to the Dubliner Restaurant and Pub on a dazzling Saturday . He wore no Kelly green but his jacket was pierced with a button that read, “VIP GUEST – Tell ’em Danny sent you.” The president waded into a crowd — some in leprechaun hats and others in dyed green hair — at the entrance of the tavern near Washington’s landmark Union Station.

Reporters were ushered into the pub briefly, long enough to catch the president taking two sips of his beer. The thick foam stuck to his upper lip in a thin mustache.

One of Obama’s great-great-great grandfathers on his Kansas mother’s side was Falmouth Kearney, a shoemaker who emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1850. Last year, Obama visited his ancestral home of Moneygall, a small hamlet in Ireland, and was a hit when he drank a Guinness at the local pub.

On Saturday, the owner of that pub, Ollie Hayes, and Henry Healy, an eighth cousin to Obama and the closest relative still living in Moneygall, joined him barside at the Dubliner as his guests.

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