Joe Biden’s Emotional Ancestral Homecoming in Ireland
In Ballina, County Mayo, the president spoke on the steps of a cathedral his great-great-great-grandfather built.
In his final address on his tour of Ireland, President Joe Biden stated, “It feels like coming home” while speaking in his ancestral home of Ballina, Co. Mayo.
He performed Shipping Up To Boston by Dropkick Murphys at St Muredach Cathedral after Leo Varadkar introduced him.
Mr. Biden told a rowdy crowd about his ancestors, one of whom supplied cathedral bricks.
“As he labored, I’m sure he imagined that one day his family would worship here, that his children would be baptized here like his son Patrick, and that future generations of his family would mark the milestones of their lives here in the sturdy walls, but I doubt he ever imagined that his great-great-great-grandson would return 200 years later as President of the United States of America,” he said.
Previously, he was given a 200-year-old brick from the fireplace of his family’s ancestral home in Ballina.
To buy passage for his family in 1851, his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to the cathedral in 1827.
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Mr. Biden has cried at previous events after an emotional meeting with his son’s priest.
The president visited the Knock shrine in County Mayo on Friday, where the chaplain who baptized Beau Biden works.
Before he died of brain cancer in 2015, Fr. Frank O’Grady officiated at Beau Biden’s ceremony.
He received a phone call asking him to meet with the president and later told RTE that the meeting was “like a reunion.”
“We had a pleasant 10-minute conversation. “He was happy to see me, and I was happy to see him,” he said.
It was a reunion when he gave me a bear hug. He expressed gratitude for everything that was done.”
Fr. Richard Gibbons led Mr. Biden through the Catholic pilgrimage site Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock.
“It was an extraordinary afternoon,” he said, recalling the emotional reunion between Mr. Biden and Fr. O’Grady. I’ll never forget it, I can tell you it was quite extraordinary.”
Mr. Biden traveled from Knock to Castlebar, where he paid a private visit to the Mayo Roscommon Hospice.
The president had vowed for years to revisit the facility, having broken ground on the project in 2017.
A plaque at the hospice’s entrance is dedicated to the memory of Beau Biden.
The president, his son Hunter, and his sister Valerie met distant cousin Laurita Blewitt at the site.
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Friday afternoon’s Knock Airport landing concludes Mr. Biden’s four-day tour of County Mayo.
This is the president’s second trip to his ancestral homeland, following his trip to County Louth on Wednesday.
The president has passionately discussed his Irish ancestry on multiple occasions, describing his Thursday address to the Irish parliament as “one of the greatest honors of my career.”
Mr. Varadkar joined Mr. Biden at Ireland West Airport as Air Force One departed for Delaware, Mr. Biden’s home state.
The Taoiseach pleased with the outcome of the trip and declared that relations between Ireland and the United States “have never been better.”
He added, “Without a doubt, we have an ally in the White House, we have an administration that is looking out for Ireland, and that is a truly remarkable thing to have the largest political power in the world, the largest economy in the world, with a president and an administration that cares about a small country of five million people.”
Joe Biden’s Emotional Ancestral Homecoming in Ireland
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