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US VICE PRESIDENT Joe Biden touches down in Ireland today for a visit during which he is expected to pay homage to his ancestral Irish roots.
In preparation, genealogists have been putting together his family tree. So just how Irish is Joe Biden?
Prepare yourself for quite a few ‘great-greats’ and even a few ‘great-great-great’ ancestors in there.
However, Biden’s closest link to Ireland is his great-grandfather, James Finnegan, who emigrated from Louth as a child in 1850.
Family history research company Ancestor Network carried out extensive research into the Vice President’s family tree ahead of his visit. And according to genealogist John Hamrock, his Irish roots are pretty strong.
According to Hamrock, all eight of Biden’s great-great-grandparents on his mother’s side were born in Ireland in the first half of the 19th century.
And two great-grandparents on his father’s side were born here too.
Having 10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents born in Ireland makes Biden 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,” Hamrock told TheJournal.ie.
Joe Biden is quite proud of his Irish roots and it’s something he takes pretty seriously.
Let’s start at the beginning
Biden was born on November 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and says he grew up in a family that was steeped in Irish values.
In an interview with RTÉ this week, Biden said the Irish trip means ” a great deal” to him, as it was a visit he had hoped to make with his son Beau, who died of cancer last year.
“My grandfather and grandmother Finnegan, all my mother’s brothers, and my father told us about the courage and commitment it took for our relatives to emigrate from Ireland – in the midst of tragedy to distant shores, where they didn’t know what awaited them. It took great courage,” he said.
Biden’s mother, Jean Finnegan, was born in the US to Ambrose Finnegan and Geraldine Blewitt.
According to the research, Ambrose’s dad, James Finnegan, arrived in New York on the SS Marchioness of Bute in 1850 with his mother and two younger brothers when he was just seven years old. The family came from the Cooley Peninsula in Louth.
His father, Owen Finnegan, a 24-year-old shoemaker, had arrived a year earlier on board the SS Isaac Wright.
James Finnegan later married Catherine Roche, whose parents Thomas and Bridget Roche were also born in Ireland, although it’s unclear where. Thomas Roche, who was born in 1813, is listed as being a stonemason.
Jean Finnegan’s mother, Geraldine Blewitt, also had strong Irish connections.
Her four grandparents – Patrick Blewitt, Catherine Scanlon, Mary Arthurs and James Stanton – were all born in Ireland between 1830 and 1845, according to the research.
The most is known about the Blewitts, who are believed to have come from Rappacastle, near Ballina, Co Mayo.
Biden’s great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt emigrated to the US in 1851 on board the SS Excelsior. He was accompanied by his wife Mary Mulderrig and their seven children, including Patrick Blewitt – Biden’s great-great-grandfather.
Patrick Blewitt, then aged 18, was listed as a sailor on board the ship.
A couple of Irish figures also popped up in Biden’s father’s side of the family.
His great-great-grandparents John Hanafy and Mary Ward were born in Ireland. Mary Ward’s parents (Biden’s great-great-great-grandparents) John and Mary Ward were from Co Galway, according to the research.
Hamrock said researching Biden’s family tree took “quite a bit of detective work”, with census, parish records, land records, trade directories and birth, death and marriage records all used to aid the search.
“It’s more challenging the further back you go,” Hamrock said, adding records in Ireland were often patchy when it came to ship passenger lists and Catholic Church records prior to 1850.
“It takes good methodology and perseverance.”
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This is getting way too complicated for me! I quit!!
It’s simple, they screw us and we take it
Its simple – the idea of 17 different nations all having the same currency is daft
You cannot have ONE currency and 17 FINANCE MINISTERS!
Mmmm its begining to look an awful lot like Declan Ganleys proposal to federalise the EU debts using the ESM as the vehicle to facilitate this.
Correct Sean. Also looking an awful lot like Ganley was right when he said there would be no money left in the ESM by the time Ireland required the second bailout.
I don’t agree Sean. The fact that knowing that the EFSF and ESM will be able to intervene and buy bonds directly will probably push the yield down even without them actually having to do anything. That will make it possible for countries to actually use the markets instead of the bailout mechanisms.
If you look at the recent short-term Spanish bond issue it was actually oversubscribed from buyers. Yes, Spain paid a premium because the markets knew that they have no other choice currently but to pay that price. If however the Spanish can simply turn to the EFSF/ESM and sell their bonds to them at a lower yield then the markets will ultimately have to follow because they have to buy and sell bonds to make any money. There the markets will offer the lower rates and the EFSF/ESM won’t actually have to do anything.
@ Jim Walsh
Your analysis is somewhat skewed.
Firstly EFSF and ESM do not have the €750 billion being brandied about, this is an imaginary figure because they are just sums that have been promised by EZ member countries including Italy and Spain! Where is it going to come from if it is actually needed?
Secondly, you sound very simplistic when you assume that the markets will offer lower rates because of (a non existent fund?). That is precisely what was expected when we had this phony €100 billion bailout for Spanish banks 2 weeks ago, rather the markets rightly saw through the charade and the Spanish bond rates has not reduced but topped 7% this week .
By the time the markets see that this an unholy cross between a sham and scam- it will all start again.
Jim. 750bn is nowhere near enough to bailout Spain and Italy. It will not solve the crisis only buy more time.
Not at all… Italy payed 20% of Spain’s bailout at an interest of 3% … To pay this Italy borrowed from the ESM at 7% … Basically it has put both countries over the edge and now Italy’s closer to boiling…. European union fail…..
This is just a precursor to the American dept crisis… The real crash the dollar bust
750bn would be enough to bailout Spain for this year, but not Spain and Italy.
Spanish banks borrow over 300bn a month from the ECB, and have 3 trn in debt.
This is a big step forward but a long way from resolving it. Look at how Greece has nearly swallowed half of that 750 already and it is only 1/14 the size of these two and its banks and private sector have low debt, as opposed to Spain/
Italy did not borrow from the ESM at 7% – they borrowed on the open markets at 7%
The whole thing is going to burst in 3 years time
What date?
I predict this will go ahead and the morning headline will be ‘costs drop on borrowing’ followed by an evening headline of ‘costs rise after morning rest-bite, markets unconvinced’. Whatever they do the markets keep coming back at us harder, we really are slaves to the markets.
We are slaves to the market but it is a point as well, that half gestures like this, can’t be expected to solve anything.
The crisis is because of the euro. You cannot have a monetary union without a fiscal union. And you cannot have a fiscal union without political union.
The parliaments of Europe will never agree to political union
They will also never agree to fiscal union. The principle power a parliament has is control over the finances. They will never hand over this power to Brussels
The euro crisis could be over in the morning if the ECB was allowed to buy up sovereign debt. But Dr Merkel will not give them that power. She will only give them that power when there is a fiscal union. And a full fiscal union, if there ever is one, could take years
For example the Bank of England has bought up a THIRD of UK sovereign debt. That is why Britains yields or interest rates are down at 1.5%. If Spain had its own central bank, it could mop up all their govt debt and have the same low yields
The markets ate sure to look for a way to exploit this if it becomes reality. Is it possible?
The question is will it become reality? All 17 countries will have to agree to this scheme. Will the triple AAA countries agree if they think it will damage their ratings?
Sorry that last comment should have been directed at Too Trueleft and not Sean.
That piggy bank is looking awfully small right now.
*sorry not directed at you. General comment.
have your say