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As America slowly turned blue, Ballina held her breath. Was it really possible that Joe Biden, considered a native son of this town of Co Mayo, even if it was five generations, was about to become the next American president? Was.
On Saturday, elections were called for Biden and Ballina was ready to celebrate. Biden’s distant cousins popped the first champagne cork in the city’s market square, under the gaze of a few hundred delighted locals, two hours before CNN made the call.
Someone arrived in a cherry red ’57 Buick Electra coupe with Elvis cushions in the rear window. A speaker played Biden’s campaign song, “We Take Care of Our Own,” by Bruce Springsteen, and the music from former President Bill Clinton’s winning campaign, “Don’t Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow).”
Pride in Biden is strong in this city. His great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt was born in Ballina and immigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, just after the famine, according to historians.
Now, the city can boast of having produced not one, but two presidents. Former Irish President Mary Robinson was born a few hundred yards from Market Square, in a house by the salmon-rich River Moy. He won the election on November 7, 1990, exactly 30 years before Biden’s victory.
“It’s amazing to think about it,” said Aileen Horkin, an elementary school teacher in the city. “I can tell any kid in my school that he can become president.”
On Friday night, glued to CNN and RTE, not even these doom-laden fans of the heartbreaking Mayo soccer team could see a way for their son to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They would have to prepare a party for when the election was called. But where and with Ireland under a strict coronavirus lockdown, how?
The first question was easily answered. As the sun set on Friday, a beautiful, cool day in late fall, the Ballina community cleanup group began gathering under the city’s newest piece of street art, a giant Biden billboard, strangely similar to Warhol, seen in the market square. . It was erected two months ago in what appears to have been guerrilla circumstances.
“We had it ready before the county council knew about it,” confided Linda O’Hora, a member of the group who helped paint and assemble the tribute at a local warehouse.
“Anything over 25 square meters would need planning permission from the council,” said David O’Malley, a local attorney and informal legal counsel for the group. “That painting is 24.98”. Anyway, he said, the picture was on a private wall. Next, the planners had to decide how to decorate.
He spotted a lone row of Stars and Stripes pennants, and headed for a neighboring building. More would have to be found. Horkin, who was wearing a 2020 Biden-Harris T-shirt, had brought some old Christmas decorations and was trying to figure out how to repurpose them.
“You can’t buy anything now because of the Covid shutdown,” he said. “All the stores are closed.” Scouts were dispatched to track down the owners of the local joke shop and theatrical costume shop, which were rumored to have stocks of American-themed pennants and paraphernalia, as well as many unsold Donald Trump Halloween masks. Horkin recalled that two children from his school had arrived on Halloween dressed as presidential rivals. “We should get them to do it again,” he suggested.
The next morning American and Irish flags had sprung up on the streets of Ballina, while the printers were busy producing Biden posters in county colors, with the caption “Go Mayo, Joe.” A constant stream of parents led their children to the wall to have their photo taken with the president-elect.
Gerry Luskin, a local restaurateur and president of the Ballina Chamber of Commerce, said there were long-standing ties between Ballina and Biden’s hometown of Scranton. Many people from Mayo immigrated to Scranton, and Ballina and Scranton are sister cities.
“There are a lot of ordinary people in Ballina who also have relatives in Scranton,” he said. “When his great great grandfather went to Scranton, a lot of other people followed him and they worked on the railroad and coal mining and things like that.”
Biden’s ancestor was a government official and surveyor, and he was deeply involved in alleviating famine, according to historians. “When we saw Lackawanna County turn blue on CNN, we said it was all the people from Ballina that went there,” Horkin said of the county that contains Scranton. Biden won more than 53 percent of the vote in Lackawanna County, and his victory in Pennsylvania propelled him to the presidency.
Luskin recalled being a junior chef at nearby Ashford Castle when Ronald Reagan stayed there during his own presidential pilgrimage to ancestral land in 1984. But he said he thought Reagan, like several other presidential visitors to Ireland, had an eye. in propping up your Irish American Vote.
Biden, he said, has real and loving ties to Ballina. Aside from an official visit in 2016, when Biden was vice president, he has made several other informal trips to the city. In 2017, he began construction of the new hospice in the region, of which he is a sponsor.
Joe Blewitt, a 41-year-old plumber and Biden’s third cousin, has met him several times in Ballina. Blewitt was invited to the emotional ceremony at the White House where President Barack Obama surprised Biden, then his vice president, with the Freedo Presidential Medal for his service to the country.
He arrived at Ballina Square in a pickup truck that bore the legend “Joe Biden for the White House and Joe Blewitt for Your House.”
“He’s a lovely man,” Blewitt said as daughters Emily, 9, and Lauren, 7, smiled and shivered in the cold. “A really nice man. He knows how to handle himself. “” It’s real presidential stuff, “he added.” When he came back in 2017 to turn the lawn into the hospice, we had lunch with him and his brother, and this time he had no security, and we just talked about all kinds He could be talking and telling stories all day. He has some good ones. He’s been at that for a long time. “
Are there many other Blewitts left in May? “Too many,” joked a voice in the background. Derek Leonard, owner of Harrison’s pub, regretted that the celebrations were being held under closure.
But, like many other business owners in the city, he hoped this would be more than offset by the future trade of visitors exploring the roots of an American president. The house where Biden’s now-defunct great-great-grandfather was born and raised is believed to have been on a disused path behind Harrison’s pub, Leonard said. “It’s full of debris right now, but I’ll clear it up,” he said. “And we will put up a plaque, even if I have to do it myself.” -New York Times
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