JOE BIDEN LOVES his Irish roots. But while Irish-Americans love him back, they’re also fine with his decision to step aside.

More than fine, in fact. Irish-American Democrats seem newly-energised and buoyed up by the presidential election, with many saying that they believe the Democrats can win in November.

In interviews in Chicago this week, where the Democratic National Convention is taking place, multiple people told The Journal that while it had meant a lot to see him in office, he did the right thing by bowing to pressure and not running again.

“The energy is different. The conversations are different. It all feels very buzzy,” said Amy Lawless, who grew up in Galway and has lived in Chicago for many years.

She was speaking at an event for Irish-American Democrats in Chicago which was being held in one of the venues owned and run by her family.

“We do lots of St Patrick’s Day parties here and this actually feels like St Patrick’s Day,” she told The Journal. “It just has that excitement and happiness about it.”

“There’s no sadness for Joe Biden. We love Joe, we appreciate everything he did for America. He did an amazing job. But it was time to pass the torch,” Tim Egan said. “The Irish-Americans that I [know] are behind Kamala Harris 100%.”

People pointed to Biden’s performance in the debate against Donald Trump as being the final moment when it became clear that he should go.

“We were excited about Joe. And then the debate happened and all of us said, ‘Okay, he’s not up to it anymore’,” said Abdon Pallasch, an Irish-American who works in political communications. 

“I’m not even going to say that it’s bittersweet. I think we all felt that it was time,” said Fiona McEntee, an immigration lawyer who moved to the US from Ireland. “He is such a patriot. As a woman, as an immigrant, as a now naturalised American citizen, to see this ticket is just incredible. So I think there’s a sense of gratitude to him for this.”

Others saw Harris’s candidacy as the best shot to beat the Republican nominee. “I think the Irish as a whole would be happy to close the door on Donald Trump for good,” said Theresa Flynn. “After being in Ireland this past summer, I heard the resounding message over and over: ‘What the hell are you guys doing over there?’.

There were early questions about Kamala Harris’s candidacy after she was announced as the likely Democratic nominee to replace Biden.

“There may have been some initial Kamala scepticism, some questions about whether she was up to the job,” said Abdon Pallasch.

“Within a day or two after Joe announced his retirement and backed Kamala, I was surprised to find my daughters, who had not been into politics at all, were so excited about Kamala – and I realised ‘oh, we’re going to be fine.’ She’s energising a whole new generation that had been apathetic.”

The new presidential campaign has sought to emphasise the similarities between the candidates.  Alex Nason, the Irish-American and Catholic Co-ordinator for the Harris campaign, told the crowd at the Irish-American Democrats event that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz shared the Irish-American values of honesty and hard work.

The Trump connection

Among Democrats, the prospect of another Trump presidency raises multiple red flags. 

“I’m a daughter of an immigrant, a wife of an immigrant, and a daughter of a union worker and a wife of a union worker, so I believe that workers’ rights are being challenged if Donald Trump comes into office again,” said Theresa Flynn.

Abdon Pallasch saw a ‘selfishness and shortsightedness’ in Trump’s campaign.

“It’s the same dynamic that got Boris Johnson and Victor Orban elected; the scapegoating and xenophobia and fear of outsiders.

“And if you go into the kitchen in this fine Irish-American establishment here, I’ll bet there are Mexican folks there working in the kitchen. That’s who works the kitchens, because Americans don’t want these jobs. And so we should be welcoming all these folks who are willing to take these jobs, and the lawn care [jobs] and everything else that they’re willing to do.”

Older Irish-Americans in particular have gravitated strongly towards Donald Trump in recent years, as he galvanised support among working-class communities with his promises to protect jobs in the US.

“A lot of people that came out here maybe 40, 50 years ago are huge Trump supporters,” said Amy Lawless.

Addressing the crowd at the event via Zoom from Ireland, where he was visiting, her father, former Senator Billy Lawless, who lives in Chicago said he would ‘always remember’ what happened on January 6th 2020, when protesters attacked the Capitol Building in Washington DC in an attempt to stop the handover of power.

“I think our democracy is in danger,” he said, urging people to vote for Kamala Harris.

The Irish-American Democrats  are confident that Harris will win in November. 

“Yes, I absolutely think she will,” said Fiona McEntee. “But I don’t want to get complacent. There is a a fear that [Democrats] will end up lulled into a false sense of security, and we’ll take our foot off the gas. And that’s not what we need to do. She needs all of us to get behind her. She needs us to help her win.”

“We need to remember how it felt when Trump won the election. There were a lot of people that felt like we should have done more, and I don’t want that to happen again.”