In the heart of Ballymoney, a small town in Northern Ireland’s County Antrim, bike leather-clad tourists seek out a well-manicured memorial garden.
Astride his motorbike, a life-sized statue of champion racer Joey Dunlop leans back, arms folded, a victorious grin engraved for eternity. The late King of the Roads, a local legend, still commands pilgrimage from around the world.
There are statues too of his brother Robert, and nephew William, all three men taken before their time, snatched away by one of the world’s most dangerous sports.
Down the street, drinkers sip pints in the sunshine outside Joey’s Bar, beneath his smiling image. This place knows how to celebrate its sons.
Image: Statue of Joey Dunlop, motorcycle racing legend from Ballymoney
Yet there is a strange reticence to embrace the ancestral ties that might see Ballymoney blood in the Oval Office. A reluctance to acknowledge the town’s most famous daughter. “You’ll not get them to talk on that,” one man told me. And I soon found out how right he was.
Five years ago, Donald J Harris, father of Kamala Harris, revealed his belief that he is descended from Hamilton Brown, born in Ballymoney around 1776. Brown emigrated to Jamaica and ran sugar plantations. He owned scores of slaves, some treated harshly.
In an essay by Harris, published by the Jamaica Global Online website, the Stanford University professor wrote: “My roots go back, within my lifetime, to my paternal grandmother Miss Chrishy (nee Christiana Brown, descendant of Hamilton Brown who is on record as plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town).” Donald J Harris emigrated to the US from Jamaica in 1961.
Image: Donald J Harris with his baby daughter Kamala. Pic Kamala Harris
That story has been given fresh impetus since Joe Biden paved the way for Kamala Harris to become the Democratic presidential candidate. In recent weeks, a County Antrim historian said he had found documentation shedding further light on Hamilton Brown.
Stephen McCracken told the local newspaper, the Ballymoney Chronicle, that he had discovered letters connecting Brown to his birthplace in Bracough, a townland just outside Ballymoney. He told the newspaper that Brown was “a seriously bad man, who travelled to London a few times to campaign against the abolition of slavery”.
The Irish Times picked up on the story, as did the Belfast Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
“I’ve been getting a wee bit of abuse over it,” McCracken told the Irish Times. “People have been asking me why I’ve publicised it.”
Image: The local Ballymoney newspaper ran an article on Harris’s links to the town
When I asked him for an interview, he declined, citing an abusive backlash via social media, including Kamala Harris supporters accusing him of trying to wreck her campaign.
Right-wing and pro-Trump memes have circulated since 2019, painting the Harris family as “descended from slave owners”, without any context. These tropes deliberately ignore the ugly explanation that slave owners commonly raped their female slaves, explaining why many black Jamaicans have European genes.
In the ultra-polarised world of American politics, Kamala supporters were allegedly hitting out at those publicising her heritage, seeing it as ammunition for further MAGA propaganda.
Meanwhile, the Ballymoney Chronicle carried a follow-up piece practically debunking the original claim of lineage. A qualified genealogist told the paper that the links were “unproven”, and said Hamilton Brown was not recorded as getting married or having children.
Image: Depiction of slavery in British West Indies, most likely Jamaica, 1800. Pic slaveryimages.org,
When I asked that genealogist for an interview – they agreed. The next day they abruptly cancelled, calling the story “a pile of nonsense”.
I asked McCracken for further details of his research. He stopped replying.
A third historian told me he didn’t think existing documentation would ever prove the link. “You’d need DNA testing,” he said.
Spreaker
This content is provided by Spreaker, which may be using cookies and other technologies.
To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.
You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Spreaker cookies or to allow those cookies just once.
You can change your settings at any time via the Privacy Options.
Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Spreaker cookies.
To view this content you can use the button below to allow Spreaker cookies for this session only.
I felt like I was encountering a wall of silence from others in Ballymoney. Multiple phone calls, messages and emails to a high-profile local DUP councillor went unanswered. A Sinn Fein colleague seemed unaware of the story and not overly interested in an interview. Ballymoney business owners declined to arrange interviews, or were not returning calls.
Repeated attempts to visit Ballymoney were abandoned due to rioting in Belfast. Another journey was aborted after the Sky News satellite van suffered a blow-out on a particularly inhospitable stretch of road.
The story was starting to feel a bit cursed.
Image: This bronze sculpture welcomes visitors to the Barack Obama Plaza. Photo by Adrian Langtry/Shutterstock
When we did belatedly arrive, the contrast to other US presidential “hometowns” in Ireland was stark.Long before they received the imprimatur of an actual visit, Ballina in Co Mayo and Carlingford in Co Louth were abuzz with Bidenmania.
You can’t visit the “Barack Obama Plaza” motorway service station outside Moneygall, Co Offaly, without a sense of the faintly ridiculous Irish enthusiasm for presidential heritage. Petrol and a chicken fillet roll downstairs, Obama visitor centre upstairs.
Yet, half a decade on from Donald J Harris’s revelation, there isn’t a solitary sign of the transatlantic connection in Ballymoney. Not a mural, a sign, a US flag or an enterprising cafe with a Kamala-themed name.
On Main Street, pedestrians were bemused. Most simply hadn’t heard the tale. It’d take more than Kamala to brighten up “this dreary town”, one woman ventured, a bit unkindly.
Image: There is a seeming reticence to discuss Kamala Harris’s links to Ballymoney
But some locals were happy to talk.
In the W & J Walker hardware shop, paint brushes from both the “Hamilton” and “Harris” brands hung serendipitously side-by-side.
“People around here like family trees,” said worker Joanne Donnell. “They like to go back to the original people.”
“It’ll bring a bit of excitement to the town,” her sister Rhonda Lafferty said. “We get a lot of visitors here from America, this summer especially.”
Image: Rhonda Lafferty and Joanne Donnell, sisters who both work at the W & J Walker shop in Ballymoney
Neither woman seemed concerned that Hamilton Brown was a slave owner. “People take these things with a pinch of salt,” said Joanne. “It was a long time ago.”
Winifred Mellot owns the bustling The Winsome Lady clothes shop. A popular figure, she is also the long-serving president of the Ballymoney Chamber of Commerce. She doesn’t think Brown’s slave-owning past should sour any future celebrations.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “I mean let’s face it, we all have ancestors we’re not happy with, and you can’t blame Kamala or her family for what Hamilton Brown did. No, we don’t approve of it but it’s history.”
Image: Winifred Mellot, owner of The Winsome Lady clothes shop and president of Ballymoney Chamber of Commerce
County Antrim’s White House credentials are also history. Incredibly, nine US presidents (with varying degrees of certainty) claim lineage from The Saffron County, from Andrew Jackson right up to Ronald Reagan (shared with Co Tipperary).
Can Kamala Harris make it 10? That depends firstly on the US electorate, and a willingness in Ballymoney to embrace the story.
Not far from the town you’ll find the Dark Hedges which portray the “King’s Road” in Game Of Thrones. A certain darkness too, may lurk within the branches of the Harris family tree. But while historians bicker, Kamala’s own father knows his truth. And that roots the family as surely in Antrim soil as those storm-battered beeches.
Donald Trump begins bulldozing much of the White House as his plans to build a mega ballroom begin – without planning permission, nor true clarity as to how it’s all being funded.
There are aesthetic questions, historical questions and ethical questions. We dig into what they are.
And – who is the young Democratic socialist about to become New York City’s first Muslim mayor? We tell you everything you need to know about Zohran Mamdani.
You can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel – and watch David Blevins’ digital video on the White House ballroom here.
Email us on trump100@sky.uk with your comments and questions.
Analysis: Escalation will test Trump and Carney’s relationship
Trump turning once again on America’s closest ally Canada just proves how flippant his trade decisions are.
The smooth-talking confidence of Prime Minister Mark Carney persuaded Canadians to vote for him in this year’s election.
He certainly ran on a pitch to stand up to Trump, but his recent dealings with the US president have largely been diplomatic and cordial.
Carney was last in the Oval Office just over two weeks ago, and the pair laughed off Trump’s obsession with Canada becoming the “51st state”.
But now it’s a single advert from the government of Ontario that has triggered Trump to pause all trade talks between the two, calling its anti-tariff stance “egregious” on his social media platform Truth Social.
The advert uses Ronald Reagan’s voice to attack tariff policy – arguing trade barriers “hurt every American worker and consumer… markets shrink, and collapse, businesses and industries shut down and millions of people lose their jobs”.
But now, the Ronald Reagan Foundation has said the ad “misrepresents” his words – and they did not give their permission to use it.
Mere hours before Trump’s post, Carney was prodding Trump jokingly to bet on the outcome of the baseball World Series.
Given this latest escalation by the President tonight, their next interaction will be far from a laughing matter.
Vladimir Putin has described Donald Trump’s sanctions against two major oil firms as an “unfriendly act”.
However, the Russian president has insisted the tightened restrictions won’t affect the nation’s economy, a claim widely contradicted by most analysts.
In a major policy shift, Mr Trump imposed sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil – Russia’s biggest oil companies – on Wednesday.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:08
Will US sanctions on Russian oil hurt the Kremlin?
The White House said this was because of “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.
Putin has now warned the move could disrupt the global oil markets, and lead to higher prices for consumers worldwide.
A meeting between the two leaders had been proposed in Budapest, but Mr Trump said he had decided to cancel the talks because “it didn’t feel right to me”.
Speaking from the Oval Office, he had told reporters: “I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”
More on Donald Trump
Related Topics:
Giving a speech in Moscow yesterday, Putin said “dialogue is always better than war” – but warned that Russia will never bow to pressure from abroad.
Earlier, his long-term ally Dmitry Medvedev had described Mr Trump as a “talkative peacemaker” who had now “fully embarked on the warpath against Russia”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:43
Why did Trump sanction Russian oil?
Oil prices have witnessed a sizeable jump since the sanctions were announced, with Brent crude rising by 5% – the biggest daily percentage gains since the middle of June.
In other developments, Lithuania has claimed that two Russian military aircraft briefly entered its airspace yesterday.
A Su-30 fighter and Il-78 refuelling tanker were in the NATO member’s territory for 18 seconds, and Spanish jets were scrambled in response to the incident.
Russia’s defence ministry denied this – and said its planes did not violate the borders of any other country during a “training flight” in the Kaliningrad region.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:47
Zelenskyy tells Sky News ‘ceasefire is still possible’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a European Council summit in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine – and said the meeting had delivered “good results”.
He said Ukraine had secured political support for frozen Russian assets and “their maximum use” to defend against Russian aggression, adding the EU would “work out all the necessary details”.
Mr Zelenskyy thanked the bloc for approving its 19th sanctions package against Russia earlier today, and work was already beginning on a 20th.
European leaders are going to arrive in London later today for a “critical” meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” – with the goal of discussing “how they can pile pressure on Putin as he continues to kill innocent civilians with indiscriminate attacks across Ukraine”.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
0:43
How will the Russian oil sanctions affect petrol costs?
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “The only person involved in this conflict who does not want to stop the war is President Putin, and his depraved strikes on young children in a nursery this week make that crystal clear.
“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace.
“From the battlefield to the global markets, as Putin continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine we must ratchet up the pressure on Russia and build on President Trump’s decisive action.”