US President Joe Biden, a proud Irish-American, arrived in Dublin on Thursday for a three-day tour of Ireland, where he met the country’s president and prime minister before delivering an address to parliament and a banquet at Dublin Castle.
Biden’s focus on one of his longest foreign trips as president shifted to celebrating his heritage from peace in Northern Ireland, where he urged political leaders to restore their power-sharing government with the promise of significant US investment on Wednesday.
Later, he took a lighter trip to Louth, Ireland, where his great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan immigrated to the United States in 1849. On Friday, he will visit relatives from his other side of the family in County Mayo.
When asked how it felt to “be home,” Biden told journalists after meeting Irish President Michael D. Higgins, “It feels great.”
“I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are so many Irish Americans, like my relatives, who came to America in 1844, ’45, and ’46 and have never returned.”
While visiting fellow octogenarian Higgins’ “incredible” home, Biden joked that he did not want to return to Washington. Higgins previously hosted then-Vice President Biden in 2016 and 2017 at Aras an Uachtarain in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
When signing the visitors’ book, Biden quoted the Irish proverb “Your feet will bring you where your heart is,” and wrote that it was an honor to return to the home of his ancestors to celebrate everything that binds Ireland and the United States.
In addition to planting an oak tree in the presidential garden and watching a demonstration of Gaelic sports after meeting Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Biden provided plenty of images back home ahead of his planned re-election campaign in 2024.
Biden, who will be accompanied by his son Hunter, sister Valerie, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for some of his Dublin engagements, will be the guest of honor at a banquet at St Patrick’s Hall in Dublin Castle on Thursday evening, an honor previously bestowed upon Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
He will become the fourth US president to address a joint session of the Irish parliament, following John F. Kennedy in 1963, Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Bill Clinton in 1995.
On Friday, he returns to County Mayo on Ireland’s west coast to meet relatives from another branch of his family, great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt. To round out his tour, he will pay a visit to the Catholic shrine in Knock and deliver a public address in the town of Ballina.
