Biden will conclude ‘homecoming’ journey with West of Ireland rally.
On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden concluded his sentimental three-day visit to Ireland, the longest ever by an American leader, with a rally in his great-great-great grandfather’s West of Ireland homeland.
With exuberant flag-waving audiences, picture opportunities with newborns, and extended long-winded speeches, the trip has previewed his 2024 re-election campaign.
Politics and people fuel him. “He’s a natural politician,” said Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, who spent Wednesday afternoon with Biden welcoming audiences in northeastern County Louth.
“There’s no waning of the appetite is what I would have detected in those last few days,” Martin said on public channel RTE.
On Wednesday in Belfast, Biden urged political leaders to restore their powersharing government. He addressed the Irish parliament and dined at Dublin Castle on Thursday.
After departing Dublin, Biden was scheduled to visit Knock, a Catholic site in northeastern Ireland, where he would receive a stone from the gable wall of the Church where the Virgin Mary appeared in 1879.
Later, he will visit Ballina, where Biden’s great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt immigrated to the U.S. with his wife and eight children in 1851.
Blewitt helped build St. Muredach’s Cathedral, where Biden will speak.
“It’s a homecoming for him,” said Joe Blewitt, Biden’s distant relative. “He’s so proud of his roots.”
The village was decked with U.S. flags, bunting, and cardboard cutouts of Biden looking out windows before the visit. In addition, the school has a Biden mural.
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