FRESH FROM HIS arrival in Dublin, US Vice-President Joe Biden headed to his ancestral home of Co Mayo today to pay homage to his roots.
It’s part of his trip to the ‘old sod’ which has already seen him gifted with a specially engraved hurley by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Today, he met President Michael D Higgins at the Áras, where the pair held a bilateral meeting, which wasn’t open to the press.
Biden headed from the Áras to Co Mayo, which is where his mother Jean Finnegan’s own mother was from.
Biden was accompanied on his Mayo trip by Enda Kenny, and the pair were set to visit “points of significance to the Vice President and the Taoiseach”.
The pair were welcomed by large crowds of US flag-waving supporters in Ballina.
Ancestor Network, a family history research company, dug into Biden’s family tree and found that his Irish roots are very strong.
With 10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents born in Ireland, Biden can call himself five-eighths Irish. “Biden’s family were labouring people, who came from fairly common stock.
“They were among a generation of Irish people who emigrated to America at the height of the Great Famine,” John Hamrock of Ancestor Network told TheJournal.ie. The Vice President will remain overnight in Co Mayo, where no doubt he’ll get a warm welcome.
In an interview with RTÉ earlier this week, the US Vice President said the Irish trip means ” a great deal” to him, as he had hoped to make the trip with his son Beau, who died of cancer last year.
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