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It is difficult to know who is more famous in Ballina in County Mayo; Joe Biden, Joe Blewitt or Joe Blewitt’s van.
The white VW Crafter is adorned with an image of Mr bidenand the motto “Joe Biden for the White House and Joe Blewitt for your house.”
It’s the exclusive business card of the heating and plumbing contractor, who happens to be the president-elect’s third cousin, upon retirement.
“Joe is my dad’s third cousin,” says Blewitt. “Dad always knew, but the media started tracking him when he was running for vice president, and it really took off.”
Joe Blewitt is related to Joe Biden
The two Joes first met in 2016, when then-Vice President Biden, who is five-eighths Irish, first visited one of their ancestral homes on the west coast of Ireland.
“We had lunch with him that day,” recalls Blewitt. “He was great. He’s a lovely man, a really down-to-earth guy.
“He is just a great family man. He has had many tragedies in his life. I have small children myself and he just told me to grab and hold them as often as you can. That shows what kind of man he is.”
Blewitt and other family members visited the White House in January 2017 at the invitation of Biden, to witness him receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.
Later that year, no longer the vice president, Biden crossed the Atlantic for another visit to Ballina, laying the grass at the local hospice.
Joe Blewitt takes a selfie with Joe Biden
“It’s not a political tact,” says local councilman Mark Duffy, of Joe Biden’s passion for his Irish roots.
“He also came here in a personal capacity. Ballina was already twinned with his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, so there are really strong connections there.”
Those connections began in the dark and famine-ravaged days of 1850, when, like many Irishmen before him, Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather, Edward Blewitt, left Ballina for America.
Edward, an accomplished man, worked for the Ordnance Survey and the well-worn local joke is that he has now really put Ballina on the map.
“It’s a beautiful story in terms of an emigrant leaving in desperate times here in Ballina, times of famine,” says Duffy.
“Now one of his descendants has become president of the United States, so it’s a beautiful immigrant story, and that’s something we’re all very proud of.”
Joe Biden during a visit to Ballina in 2016
They are also proud of the other side of the country, on the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth. Here, Biden’s great-great-grandfather, John Finnegan, married Mary Kearney in 1813.
Both families came from humble subsistence farming origins, but the Kearneys found an ingenious way to raise extra money: collecting and selling washed algae as fertilizer to other farmers.
His son Owen Finnegan left for the United States in the 1840s, which means that the new president of the United States has not one, but two Irish ancestral homes. He took the time to visit Cooley on his 2016 trip to Ireland.
The ‘Irish’ in the Oval Office
22 American presidents have claimed some form of Irish heritage. Here are just a few:
Barack Obama – Moneygall, Co Offaly
America’s first black president visited his great-great-grandfather’s Midlands home in 2011 for the mandatory Guinness photo. He now has a motorway service station named after him
Ronald Reagan – Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary
A pub in the city was renamed “The Ronald Reagan” prior to the president’s visit in 1983. It is now housed in the Reagan Presidential Library in California after being transported brick by brick. Reagan’s great-grandfather came from Ballyporeen
Richard Nixon – Timahoe, Co Kildare
President Nixon paid his respects at his ancestors’ burial place in Timahoe, Co Kildare in 1970. While in Ireland, protesters burned his effigy and he had to dodge an egg attack in Dublin.
John F Kennedy – Dunganstown, Co Wexford
They did not become more Irish than JFK, whose great-grandfather hailed from Co Wexford. He became the first sitting president of the United States to visit Ireland in 1963. In Dublin, the crowd had no duct tape, so they threw bus tickets at him.
A Biden Boost for Local Tourism
Tourism chiefs at Co Mayo and Co Louth will expect a boost from Biden if international tourists return to Ireland. But, in Dublin, the Irish government also has its fingers crossed for a more fruitful relationship with the White House.
Privately, high-level government figures have told Sky News that they are “delighted” with Biden’s electoral triumph, that he sees a proud Irish-American win the presidency, although he does not actually take office, while the Brexit negotiations come to an end.
In September, Biden tweeted that “We cannot allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a victim of Brexit. Any trade agreement between the US and the UK must depend on respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard edge. Period. “
Joe Biden is photographed with distant cousins from County Mayo in Ireland
That is music to diplomatic ears in Dublin and it may well weigh heavily on the minds of British negotiators in the days ahead. However, others say the President-elect’s Irish heritage should not be overstated. While he will innately be more sympathetic to Ireland and the EU’s concerns about Brexit, it is far from top of his priority list as he tries to heal his divided nation.
The art of government is also far from Ballina’s minds. Standing proud next to a framed photo of himself with the illustrious visitor to the city, innkeeper Derek Leonard looks forward to what they see as the inevitable presidential visit.
“The excitement is building,” he says, “you can feel it.”
He doesn’t care that teetotaler Joe Biden is unlikely to lift a pint of black skyward, as his predecessors have done.
“It’s just amazing for Ballina, for the Irish-Americans, for the Irish here. It’s immeasurable. He’s realizing that we have a president of the United States who comes from Ballina.”
