US VICE PRESIDENT Joe Biden continued his visit to Ireland today by taking in visits to Trinity College and Dublin Castle.
And America’s second-in-command took the opportunity to take aim at another American who was spending the day on this side of the Atlantic – Donald Trump.
In introducing Biden at Dublin Castle, Taoiseach Enda Kenny got quite a cheer for saying that Ireland’s relationship with the UK will endure the Brexit vote. Not as great a cheer as he did for mentioning Robbie Brady’s goal against Italy mind you.
Biden, fresh from receiving an honorary doctorate from Trinity College (during which he insisted that America’s ‘special bond’ with the UK following yesterday’s Brexit vote will endure), took the opportunity to fire a thinly-veiled barb at the presumptive Republican nominee for November’s American presidential election.
Biden also took note of the fact that Pride is happening in Dublin tomorrow by recounting a story about how he and his father saw two men kissing in 1959 or 1960.
“Joey, it’s easy, they love each other,” Biden said his father told him.
The Vice President cited the fact that ‘equal rights’ are called for in the Irish Proclamation of Independence.
“My parents never forgot where they came from,” he said.
Every time I’d walk out the door my father would say: ‘remember Joe, the best drop of blood in you is Irish.
Presumably in reference to Trump, Biden derided the “un-American” response of “reactionary politicians and demagogues” who blame immigrants for a country’s woes.
“It is un-American what we have been seeing. It is not who we have become. It is not who we are,” he said.
We’re defined by a common creed that says our children, if they work hard, if they’re loyal, they can live a better life than the generation before them… it’s a belief shared by the vast majority of immigrant families that have come to the United States.
Today is the fourth day of the Vice President’s six-day visit, rounded off with a visit to the Ireland Funds Conference at Dublin’s Stephen’s Green.
Tomorrow Biden will visit various locations in Co Louth and Co Meath, including the passage grave at Newgrange.
The Vice President returns to America on Sunday.
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