Dublin- (UPI) - French President Charles de Gaulle is really an Irishman.  Or so say the Irish.

     And some French genealogists say it, too, as a result of years of research.

     With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, genealogists in France and Dublin have agreed that General de Gaulle is a descendant of the McCartan family from County Down in Northern Ireland.  They have shown the general's ancestors, a tough warlike family, can be traced back to King Rudiricus the Great who died in 219 B.C.

     The general himself was reported following the genealogists' journey into the past.  In fact, at one point he took a hand in the research.

     One of the last of the McCartans, Mrs. Philomena Mary O'Hara, who was born in County Down and now lives in Dublin, said she had received a letter from the French statesman on the subject.
 
     "I don't wish to claim to be a relative until it has been firmly established.  All we can claim at present in clanship," she said.

     In 1951 General de Gaulle's brother, Pierre de Gaulle, who was mayor of Paris, visited Dublin and spoke to Mrs. O'Hara about their clanship.

     Genealogists have established that General de Gaulle's maternal grandmother was Marie Angelique McCartan who descended from the McCartans of County Down.  She married in Lille, Northern France, in 1829.  Her brother was named Felix McCartan and was an agent in Lille.  He applied to the Ulster king of arms for confirmation of the McCartan coat-of-arms and this was certified to him on Feb. 16, 1836.  As a result, he was able to trace his and his sister's origin to the McCartans of County Down.

     The McCartan country is scattered over many parts of County Down.  It was a name fiercely respected and protected in the county.  They were the chiefs of their clan and lords of Kinelearty who fought the English for centuries.