Joe Blewitt is just about the busiest man in Ballina. His phone rings constantly with calls from locals and the world’s media as he prepares to welcome a relative — U.S. President Joe Biden.
Biden is scheduled to travel to Ireland next week, with a stop in Ballina, the town from which one of his great-great grandfathers left for the United States in 1850. Blewitt, a distant cousin who first met Biden when he came to town as vice president in 2016, said the U.S. leader pledged to return once he’d won the presidency.“He said, ‘I’m going to come back into Ballina.’ And sure to God he’s going to come back into Ballina,” Blewitt said. “His Irish roots are really deep in his heart.
“I wouldn’t think there’s a family in Ballina that doesn’t have someone, some connection with the States,” said Anthony Heffernan, owner of Heffernan’s Fine Foods, where Biden had lunch with his local relatives during his 2016 visit.“He was very keen to talk about the town — how it was, and how it is now. He was really connected with the area.”
“There’s a great sense of euphoria around the place. Everyone is asking ‘What’s happening, when’s he coming, where’s he going?’” said Andrea McKevitt, a local politician and distant Biden relative.
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Biden's ancestral hometowns prepare warm Irish welcomeExcitement is building in Ballina, a small Irish town that was home to some of President Joe Biden's ancestors. Biden is scheduled to visit the town next week, part of a four-day trip to Ireland and neighboring Northern Ireland. The Irish Family History Centre says Biden “is among the most ‘Irish’ of all U.S. Presidents,” with 10 of his 16 great-great grandparents born on the Emerald Isle. All of them left for the U.S. during the Great Famine. He plans to visit two Irish spots connected to his roots. One is Ballina in western Ireland, where his great-great grandfather, Patrick Blewitt, was born. Distant cousin Joe Blewitt says it will be “like another St. Patrick’s Day” when the president arrives.
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