US President Joe Biden visited Ireland and spoke at St. Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, one of his family’s ancestral hometowns. Biden’s forebear Edward Blewitt sold the bricks that went into the construction of the Roman Catholic cathedral, using the money to fund his family’s emigration to the United States. Biden declared his optimism about what can be done and announced his plan to run for president again in 2024.
Biden then visited Knock, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage shrine near Ballina, where he met Father Frank O’Grady, who administered the last rites to Biden’s son Beau at Walter Reed Army Medical Center outside Washington. Biden was moved to tears during the meeting, and said his Catholic faith had sustained him. Biden then visited the Mayo Roscommon Hospice nearby with his son, sister, and Irish cousin Laurita Blewitt.
Biden then headed to Ballina, where he had a mural commissioned when he won the 2020 presidential vote. The town commissioned a five-meter-high mural of Biden as well. Biden toured a genealogy center to learn more about his Irish ancestry. In a speech Thursday to the Irish parliament, Biden declared, “I’m home.”
