Biden To Give Powerful Speech At Ancestral Roots In Ireland

President Joe Biden will conclude his trip to the island of Ireland by delivering a speech in the town from where some of his ancestors originated.

Biden will travel to the west of Ireland and give a speech at a cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo, on Friday evening.

Prior to that, he will tour the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, also in Co Mayo, a Catholic pilgrimage site visited by several popes, including Pope Francis, in 2018.

Biden is then set to visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit.

During his visit to Co Louth on Wednesday, President Biden traced some of his family members, and the visit to Co Mayo is to track the other side of his family tree. It is also reported that the president will visit the Mayo Roscommon Hospice in Castlebar, dedicated to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

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The four-day trip to the island of Ireland will conclude in Ballina, where Biden’s great-great-great Grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to the cathedral in 1827, which helped buy tickets for himself and his family to sail to America decades later in 1851.

On Thursday, Biden expressed his pride in addressing the country’s politicians in the Irish parliament, saying, “This is one of the great honors of my career, to be here today, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart.”

During a dinner at Dublin Castle in his honour, the president received a standing ovation as he reflected on his family roots and told the audience, “No barrier is too thick or too strong for Ireland.”