An Irish Homecoming For An Irish American President
I was a little hurt that President Biden didn’t ask me to go with him on his four day visit to Ireland. Yes, he was there on an important mission - to honor the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which maintains a more hopeful, nonviolent future for Northern Ireland. However, he also made the trip to connect with his Irish roots. Everyone knows the Irish are all related. We’re just an eighth cousin away. I should have been invited.
He is actually the second Irish Catholic president to visit the island. President John F. Kennedy’s historic trip was 60 years ago. That president can be excused for not including me because I wasn’t born yet. Still, I recovered enough from the slight to follow President Biden’s trip in newspaper accounts online and by watching YouTube videos and television. I listened to every speech with rapt attention and I applauded loudly from my American home, so that the sound would carry across the ocean. I also stood in spirit with the Irish under the cloudy skies and in the rain that often accompanied him throughout his journey, with the ceiling of my room serving as a substitute for my umbrella, while he visited Ulster University, Carlingford Castle and a Dundalk pub and toured the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, among other places.
At Ulster University, he spoke of a new generation in Northern Ireland that have only known peace because of the Good Friday Agreement. “Young people like Jordan Graham, born less than three weeks after the agreement was signed in 1998. His whole life — his whole life has unfolded under the wing of peace, which means, not quite 25 years of age, he’s been able to build an expertise in branding and marketing that he’s used to help grow local businesses, support startups, and consult for charities.”
Some of the numbers President Biden used in his speech are:
“In the 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland’s gross domestic product has literally doubled. Doubled. And I predict to you, if things continue to move in the right direction, it will more than triple.”
“There are scores of major American corporations wanting to come here, wanting to invest. Many have already made homes in Northern Ireland, employing over 30,000 people.”
“And in just the past decade, American business has generated almost $2 billion in investment in the region. Two billion dollars.”
In between the speeches, my favorite moments were the spontaneous ones. Some of the spectators became performers once they noticed the cameras were on them. Hats off to the boy who passed the time by dancing outside of Knock Shrine. One of the friendly Garda (Garda Síochána are the national police service of Ireland.) who was just outside the holy site as well, was empathetic toward the onlookers, saying that she didn’t want them to get their hopes up, but that President Biden might stop by when he saw a crowd gathered because “he’s unpredictable.” She also encouraged them to cheer when vehicles from the presidential motorcade drove past the police barricade. I also smiled during the different times on President Biden’s trip, including the shrine visit, when I overheard people offering the press the opportunity to come in out of the rain and have a cup of tea or coffee. That’s the Irish, I thought - always hospitable.
The dancing boy begins his improvised performance at around the 31:36 mark.
One of the most moving unplanned moments was one I read about online. President Biden “broke down in tears,” according to The New York Times after an impromptu meeting with the priest, Friar Frank O’Grady, who administered last rites to his son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Officials who planned the trip did not know that Friar O’Grady lived in the area when the president was visiting the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, a Marian shrine for Roman Catholics because of apparitions of the Virgin Mary and other important religious figures. “According to the Irish Independent, Mr. Biden had one reply when he was told by Friar Richard Gibbons, the Knock Parish priest, that Friar O’Grady was living in Knock and working as a chaplain: ‘I gotta meet him, I gotta meet him.”
According to the article, “Friar O’Grady, a former U.S. Army chaplain, had been assigned to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., when Beau Biden died at age 46.” The New York Times, referring to an interview with the BBC, wrote that, “Friar Gibbons said that the president had ‘dispatched a Secret Service agent to go and find him’ once he heard that Friar O’Grady, who hadn’t initially wanted to draw attention to himself, was nearby.” The article went on to further explain that the president continues to mourn his son. “On Friday, Friar O’Grady told the news site RTE that the president was still grieving. ‘He has been grieving a lot but I think the grief is kind of going down a bit. We talked a little bit about how grief can take several years.”
That gave me a measure of comfort because even though my father died four years ago, I feel like I’ve only just begun to mourn his passing. I cannot imagine losing a son. Later during the trip, President Biden reflected on that chance meeting with Friar O’Grady, in a speech (The president also lost his first wife and baby daughter in a car accident.) after paying a visit to Mayo Roscommon Hospice in County Mayo, which features a plaque dedicated to his late son.
President Biden also frequently referenced his Irish ancestry, which inspired me to reflect on my own heritage. USA Today has designed a great family tree of the president’s lineage. Fiona Fitzsimons, a genealogist from Dublin and director of the Irish Family History Centre, who traced the then-vice president's genealogy in 2016 said that ten of President Biden's 16 great-great-grandparents hail from Ireland. His lineage traces back to “the Blewitts in County Mayo and Finnegans from County Louth, Ireland.” The president’s ancestors fled the Great Famine, like mine. “Fitzsimons said each of Biden's Irish American ancestors were ‘famine Irish.’ They came to the U.S. between 1848 and 1855 to escape the Irish Potato Famine that ravaged the country, settling mostly in Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, to work in mining.”
President Biden also referred to Irish ancestors who fought in the American Civil War. In a speech before the Irish Parliament (Oireachtas) that included a reference to his Irish Catholic predecessor, he said, “When John Kennedy addressed parliament, he honored the more than 150,000 Irish immigrants who joined the Army of the North during America’s Civil War. And among them, one or two of them were my relatives as well.”
My sister, Stephanie, the family genealogist, discovered that one of our ancestors, by marriage on our mother’s side, fought in the Civil War. William Horgan joined the “Eighty-eighth Regiment of New York Volunteers (joining Meagher's Irish Brigade)” and fought in the Battle of Fredericksburg , where he was among the two-thirds of the Brigade who lost their lives. “Horgan's body was not recovered until several days after the battle during a truce. When his body was found it was said to have been the closest one to the Confederates' sunken-road position.”
The Celtic Cross memorializing the New York Infantry Irish Brigade Monument at Gettysburg National Historic Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
President Biden went on to make the following remarks in his speech: “President Kennedy honored their courage and sacrifice by presenting to this body the flag of the Irish Brigade, which hangs out here to this very day. Likewise, I was honored to receive an Irish flag from the Taoiseach [prime minister] during the recent St. Patrick’s Day celebration in Washington. It was flown to commemorate the Irish who first raised the Tricolour in Ireland 175 years ago and who suppose- — subsequently made his way to America where he led the Irish Brigade in that civil war — that civil war battle.”
Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl, speaker of the Dáil, the Irish Parliament’s lower chamber, was one of many who communicated in Irish as well as English. (I am always moved by the gravity and history evoked when speakers use the Irish language, even though I can’t understand it without a translation.) He spoke of the Irish immigrant ancestors of whom President Biden and many Irish Americans, such as myself are descended:
President Biden, today you are among friends because you are one of us. You often speak of your Irish roots with great pride and affection, especially your ancestors from Louth and Mayo. The story of Ireland is inextricably linked to emigration and in many ways, you personify it. From the Famine times through to today, so many people left these shores in search of a better life in the United States and a remarkable 33 million - maybe 34 million - Americans now claim Irish ancestry. The signatories of the 1916 Proclamation said that this very Republic came into being with the support of its "exiled children in America”. And how true that was. Down through the years our exiles supported Ireland economically and politically, and never forgot the families they left behind.
Below are some of the numbers that both the Ceann Comhairle and President Biden mentioned during their speeches. The first two points are from the Irish leader, the rest belong to President Biden. They reference both the economic and cultural ties of both countries.
U.S. investment supports more than 370,000 jobs in Ireland, especially in technology, healthcare and financial services sectors.
“…650 Irish companies that operate across all 50 states of the union, employing 100,000 people and the fact that Ireland today is the ninth largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States.”
“…150,000 Irish immigrants who joined the army of the North during America’s Civil War.”
“Ireland has committed more than 170 million euros in non-lethal aid to Ukraine, inluding [sic] — including vital protective gear, medical equipment, humanitarian support, and aid to minimize the impacts of war on food insecurity and child malnutrition.”
“…the Irish people have generously opened their hearts, their homes, and you’ve welcomed, as you said, nearly 80,000 — nearly 80,000 Ukrainian refugees.”
“Because Ireland remembers how painful hollows of the Great Hunger. And you’re today a global leader in food security as well. Ireland has committed fully 20 percent of your aid budget to fighting global hunger.”
“I particularly want to thank you for stepping up alongside the United States to help UNICEF and the World Health Organization fight malnutrition and child wasting. Ireland’s contribution of 50 million euros is helping prevent the — and treat wasting — child wasting — and supply ready-to-use therapeutic foods and reach a half a million children in Africa. A half a million children. You’re changing lives.”
“This week marks a vital milestone for peace: 25 years ago, the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. Twenty-five years ago. One of my best friends in the Senate, and a great, great friend to this day, is George Mitchell. As he said, ‘There were 300 days of failure’— or ‘700 days of failure and one day of success.’ But it was a success that one day. But more is to be done.”
“Yesterday and always — already Ireland draws a disproportionate amount of the foreign direct investment from the United States of America. And the same is true for Ireland’s investment into the United States of America, which is the ninth sig- — most significant investment of any nation in the world in America. You know, we share more than $1 trillion in bilateral trade and investment in 2021.”
“More than 950 American companies — international companies — have international ca- — headquarters in Ireland, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs. Seven hundred Irish companies located in 50 states employ more than 100,000 people in the United States of America.”
“I’ve flown over more territory in the United States since I’ve been President, in a helicopter, that has been burned to the ground than comprises the entire state of Maryland. The — equal to the entire state of Maryland.” (In reference to climate change.)
“And I was always quoting Irish poetry in the United States Senate over my career. That’s a long career of 36 years. And my colleagues always thought I did it because I was Irish. That’s not the reason. You’re the best poets in the world. That’s the reason I did it.”
Indeed, President Biden quoted from notable Irish poets on his trip. He spoke to the Irish Parliament on what would have been Seamus Heaney’s 84 birthday. His widow, Marie Heaney, was present for his speech as well as a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle, which Stephanie and I toured when we visited Ireland.
Here is a list of the Irish poets President Biden quoted:
Eavan Aisling Boland (Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland, read a poem of hers as well, remembering her fondly as a college friend at Trinity College Dublin.)
His great-grandfather, Senator Edward Francis Blewitt.
Seamus Heaney
There were critics of President Biden’s visit to Ireland. Paul Murphy, a People Before Profit TD (Teachta Dála), a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Irish Parliament, said that President Biden’s presence further erodes Ireland’s position of neutrality, which has been “dismantled” during the war in Ukraine. He said the visit was “utterly nauseating” because the press and politicians haven’t been asking President Biden critical questions. Also unhappy about Biden’s visit was a protestor with a sign expressing outrage at the Catholic president’s abortion stance and a Trump supporter.
Indeed, as President Biden delivered a speech in front of Saint Muredach's Cathedral (His great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt worked for a brickyard that sold the cathedral 27,000 bricks to build the 12 pillars that support the nave.), in his ancestral home of Ballina, it felt more like the start of an unofficial re-election campaign, with the cheering crowd waving American and Irish flags. Earlier in the evening, live music from the Chieftains had filled the air. It was the send-off of a famous returning son to a hopeful American victory once again, to bring good fortune to the island, that like himself is optimistic and yet has also experienced such hardship.