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Ten of the former vice president’s 16 great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland, according to the Irish for Biden campaign, to Edward Blewitt, Biden’s great-great-grandfather, who provided the connection to Ballina.
On Saturday, as CNN projected Biden’s victory in the White House, Ballina residents came out to celebrate the success of their distant relatives.
“I think Ballina saved the world tonight, because without Ballina, there would be no Joe Biden,” Mitchell, a local innkeeper, told CNN Smiler.
Balloons were tied to the cars and the crowd sang “The Green and Red of May,” a famous ballad about the county where Ballina is located. A car with a Biden cutout cardboard on the front seat had a plaque that read “PENNSYLVANIA BIDEN # 1”.
In the run-up to the elections, the community held a “Ridin ‘for Biden” event around the bridges that span the River Moy with a carousel of cars passing the city’s iconic cathedral and ending in front of a mural of the city itself. man, erected in the main square of the town.
“Ballina has always been a disadvantaged city in the west of Ireland, which has had its own challenges in the past,” said local politician Mark Duffy.
“Now we believe it is our time to shine and do our best. We look forward to welcoming the largest number of visitors from across the United States and across the political divide.”
He pointed out that the town is in a beautiful part of the world, with lakes, mountains and urban forest in the surroundings.
Biden still has distant relatives in town.
Joe Blewitt, a third cousin, who has met with the president-elect on several occasions, said his namesake “is down to earth.”
“He’s a family man,” Blewitt told CNN by phone.
But Ballina is not the only Irish city with a connection to Biden. On the opposite side of the country, in Carlingford, County Louth, a community bagpipe band was scheduled to premiere an anthem for Biden at noon Sunday.
Biden’s great-grandfather, James Finnegan, arrived in New York on the Marchioness of Bute ship in 1850 from Carlingford, a coastal city about 70 miles north of Dublin.
In honor of the electoral victory of his most famous son, the local Carlingford parish priest planned to ring the church bells with the attendance of school children and members of the community.
Paul Allen, the lead organizer of the Irish for Biden campaign, told CNN that the city was delighted with the outcome.
“Joe Biden is a quintessential Irish-American and shows what a combination of hard work and determination can do,” he said.
The campaign had encouraged Irish people around the world to call a relative in America and ask them to vote for Biden.
“The nurse who works in Chicago, the firefighter in Boston or the cop in New York, the construction worker who builds America – that’s the Irish-American connection,” Allen added.
The Carlingford community welcomed Biden in 2016 and, prior to his visit, he wrote a letter that said, “Northeast Pennsylvania will be written on my heart. But Ireland will be written on my soul.”
Ireland’s Taoiseach, or Prime Minister, Micheál Martin was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Biden on his victory on Saturday.
Back in Ballina, more celebrations were expected on Sunday.
“His message was one of hope and a light in the window for the diaspora,” said politician Mark Duffy. “… 30 years later, one of the descendants of our diaspora, who would have left Ballina at such a dark and grim time in Irish history, has risen to the highest office in the country.
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