Biden Eire journey going higher than some presidents with Irish blood

BELFAST – Firstly of his three-day journey to the Emerald Isle this week, President Joe Biden saluted the Irish-American architect who designed the White Home.

“You realize who based and designed and constructed the White Home? An Irishman,” Biden mentioned throughout a speech at Ulster College in Belfast on Wednesday. “Your historical past is our historical past.”

Biden’s remark applies not simply to the White Home itself, but in addition to its occupants.

He could also be – within the phrases of Irish genealogist Fiona Fitzsimons – “essentially the most Irish of all of the presidents.” Ten of Biden’s 16 great-great-grandparents are from Eire.

However he is removed from the one one with a connection.

Half of the 46 presidents hint a few of their roots to Eire, in accordance with the U.S. Census.

That is lots even contemplating that almost one in ten U.S. residents declare Irish ancestry.

“The Irish diaspora punch properly above their weight by way of political clout throughout the Atlantic!” tweeted EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum.

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Of the eight presidents who’ve visited Eire whereas in workplace, six are counted by the Irish Emigration Museum as having Irish ties. (President Invoice Clinton has Irish ancestry however the data are patchy, in accordance with Lynne Kelleher, writer of “The Inexperienced and White Home: Eire and the US Presidents.”)

“There stays one thing of an enigma round why this familial tie is claimed and celebrated even when the connection is as distant as an eighth cousin,” Kelleher wrote, “however nonetheless these presidential household timber spawned a succession of homecoming visits of US leaders to star-struck rural outposts round Eire.”

Biden, whose Irish Catholic heritage has been central to his political id, has been celebrating the connection. On Friday, his ultimate day in Eire, Biden went to County Mayo the place his great-great-grandfather Patrick Blewitt lived earlier than leaving for the US.

On the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s Household Historical past Analysis Unit, Biden met with a household that owns a retailer positioned on the positioning of the previous Blewitt household house in Ballina. The household offered Biden with a brick from the house.

He spent a part of his first day tracing his household roots in County Louth.

At Carlingford Citadel, the final Irish landmark that Biden’s maternal great-great-grandfather noticed earlier than he departed for New York, a four-piece bagpipe and drum ensemble belted out a bespoke anthem: “A Biden Return.”

“Seems like I’m coming house,” Biden mentioned as he took within the view of the water from a touchdown within the citadel.

Presidents have not at all times gotten a heat homecoming.

President Richard Nixon needed to dodge eggs thrown by protesters upset concerning the Vietnam Struggle.

As President Ronald Reagan addressed the Irish parliament in 1984, 1000’s exterior protested his insurance policies in Central America.

Opposition to the struggle in Iraq marred a 2004 go to by President George W. Bush.

However in 2011, President Barack Obama obtained a near-rock-star reception when he met distant cousins within the tiny village of Moneygall and visited downtown Dublin.

“My title is Barack Obama of the Moneygall Obamas,” he informed a Dublin crowd that had begun gathering seven hours earlier than his arrival. “And I’ve come house to search out the apostrophe that we misplaced someplace alongside the way in which.”

Here is a have a look at the previous journeys by presidents with Irish blood.

John F. Kennedy, 1963

The primary U.S. president to go to Eire whereas in workplace, John F. Kennedy “was jubilantly acquired by the Irish individuals,” in accordance with Nathan Mannion, senior curator at EPIC, The Irish Emigration Museum.

Nuns danced jigs on the street. The Irish Publish mentioned his journey was “akin to a go to from The Beatles.” Kennedy, himself, later informed aides his 4 days in Eire have been the perfect in his life, in accordance with the ebook “JFK in Eire.”

Kennedy’s “ascent to the head of US politics was an ‘Irish’ success story to be pleased with and infrequently his portrait may very well be discovered beside that of the Pope in Irish houses lengthy after he had departed from the island,” Mannion wrote.

After touchdown in Dublin, Kennedy famous that due to the Potato Famine of the late 1840’s that prompted eight of his great-grandparents emigrate to Boston, the little children of Eire are scattered across the globe.

“No nation on this planet, within the historical past of the world, has endured the hemorrhage which this island endured,” he mentioned of the inhabitants loss.

Fifty years after his journey, a spark from the everlasting flame by Kennedy’s grave at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery was taken to Eire to mild an “Emigrant Flame” in New Ross, the purpose of departure for the Kennedy members of the family who emigrated in 1848.

Richard Nixon, 1970

The Irish Quakers in Nixon’s ancestral tree have been a a lot smaller department than Kennedy’s Irish Catholics.

Nixon’s mom was descended from Irish Quakers from the village of Timahoe the place the president devoted a stone monument to the Quakers throughout his go to to Eire in 1970.

However a lot of the Irish Quakers stayed away from the dedication, in accordance with the Irish Impartial, as a result of they didn’t like Nixon’s dealing with of the Vietnam Struggle.

The protesters Nixon confronted in Dublin confirmed their displeasure extra aggressively. Nixon’s motorcade was egged a number of instances, together with because the president waved to the gang.

The egg throwers have been arrested. However certainly one of them, Máirín de Burca, informed The Journal in 2019 that her solely punishment was a £1 superb as a result of the choose “wasn’t in any respect sympathetic to Richard Nixon.”

Ronald Reagan, 1984

Like Nixon, Reagan was met with protesters when he went to Eire. As Reagan was about to deal with the Irish parliament throughout his 1984 journey, three lawmakers stalked out to hitch these marching exterior the constructing in opposition to Reagan’s insurance policies.

“Aside from that I used to be properly acquired & took benefit of the chance to elucidate our Central Am. Coverage which isn’t understood in Eire,” Reagan wrote in his journal.

The day earlier than, within the village of Ballyporeen, he was proven the hand written baptismal data of his nice grandfather, Michael Reagan, who left Eire in 1851.

Reagan additionally stopped in O’Farrell’s Pub in Ballyporeen, which was later renamed the “Ronald Reagan Pub.” Shortly after Reagan’s demise, the pub was dismantled and shipped to Southern California the place the beer faucets now move for guests to the Reagan Library.

George W. Bush, 2003, 2004 and 2008

Though Bush visited the Emerald Isle 3 times, his journeys didn’t embody a cease at an ancestral village or different private part

Bush by no means claimed any connection to Eire, leaving it to others to dig into his roots. EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, says a few of his ancestors got here from County Down in Northern Eire.

In a 2005 article headlined “Scion of traitors and warlords: why Bush is coy about his Irish hyperlinks,” the Guardian newspaper cited native historians’ discovery that Bush is a descendent of a “power-hungry warlord” who led the Norman invasion of Eire.

Hundreds of left-wing activists had a special purpose for protesting Bush’s arrival in 2004 for a short summit with European Union chiefs. Opposition to the Iraq struggle had elevated due to the current disclosure of the torture and abuse of prisoners on the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

One protest signal urged Individuals to “vote that son of a Bush out.”

Barack Obama, 2011

Obama didn’t know of his Irish heritage – from a great-great-great grandfather on his mom’s facet – till a genealogist found it throughout Obama’s presidential marketing campaign.

His new Irish cousins have been equally stunned by the 2007 information.

“The primary response was, `Who’s Barack Obama?’” Henry Healy, an eighth cousin, recalled shortly earlier than Obama’s 2011 go to to Moneygall.

In a village house to lower than 300 individuals, a couple of thousand waited in pounding rain, hail and wind for 3 hours to catch a glimpse of him.

“What a thrill it’s to be right here,” Obama mentioned. “There are thousands and thousands of Irish Individuals who hint their ancestry again to this stunning island.”