Biden visit – latest: US president wraps up Ireland tour after tearful meeting with priest

Joe Biden has arrived at the State Apartments at Dublin Castle for a banquet dinner in his honour.

The event is being hosted by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and will commence with a reception in the Portrait Gallery followed by the dinner in St Patrick’s Hall.

Mr Varadkar greeted Mr Biden on the red carpet on his arrival.

Joe Biden namechecked fellow Irish-Catholic president John F Kennedy when he addressed the Irish parliament.

The legacy of Mr Kennedy, who addressed a joint sitting of the Dail and Seanad in 1963, was reached for on a number of occasions by Mr Biden during the historic address.

Mr Biden, who like his predecessor has made little secret of his pride in his Irish roots, told parliamentarians: “We have the power to build a better future.”

He said that 60 years ago the “first Irish-Catholic president of the United States made a historic trip here speaking to this assembly and capturing the imaginations of Irish and Irish-American families alike”.

“When John Kennedy addressed parliament, the honour of 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 - they signed up in a new land, to stand for old values, to defend freedom and the dignity of all people.”

Joe Biden declared he was “home” in a historic address to Ireland’s parliament on Thursday where he spoke of the strength of US ties to Dublin and called on Britain to work more closely with Ireland to protect “precious” peace.

The US president was welcomed with sustained, rapturous applause as he entered the chamber in Dublin’s Leinster House for what he called “one of the great honours of my career.”

Asking to be forgiven for his attempt at speaking Irish, he said “Ta me sa bhaile” (I am home).

Mr Biden became the fourth US president to address the Irish Parliament after John F Kennedy in 1963, Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Bill Clinton in 1995.

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Irish premier Leo Varadkar said Ireland and the US have a shared history which unites their response to the war in Ukraine.

He was speaking at a dinner being held in US president Joe Biden‘s honour at Dublin Castle.

“When we show courage to defend the principle that all people are created equal, and we fight to protect those inalienable rights described so long ago when we become beacons of hope, as well as of liberty, helping others to find their own paths to freedom, and the freedom to achieve freedom - that is the promise of America. And that is the promise of Ireland too,” he said.

Joe Biden told the audience at Dublin Castle: “Together, we have worked to become more peaceful, more equal, more diverse, more unified, and I think more hopeful.

“So today, wherever there’s a yearning for freedom, a struggle for change, a cry for justice, people around the world know they can count on Ireland.

“They can count on Ireland.”

Joe Biden’s four-day trip to the island of Ireland will conclude today after he makes a public address in the hometown of some of his ancestors.

The US president has another busy schedule on Friday as he tours Co Mayo, starting with a visit to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, a Catholic pilgrimage site which has been visited by several popes, before travelling to the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit.

It is also believed Mr Biden will make a private visit to the Mayo Roscommon Hospice in Castlebar that is dedicated to his son Beau who died of brain cancer in 2015.

The visit will conclude in the town of Ballina where Mr Biden will make a speech at St Muredach’s Cathedral.

Mr Biden’s great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to the cathedral in 1827, which helped buy tickets for himself and his family to sail to America decades later in 1851.

There has been a “great buzz” in Co Mayo ahead of Joe Biden’s arrival today, a third cousin of the US president has said.

Joe Blewitt said the town of Ballina – where Mr Biden is due to speak at a cathedral to which his great-great-great grandfather sold 27,000 bricks, helping him to travel to America – will never have witnessed anything like it.

“We are building the stage at the moment. I am very excited, there is a great buzz all around the town. It has just been crazy,” he said. “The town will never have known anything like it, it is just great.”

Joe Biden became the fourth US president to address the Irish parliament yesterday evening, after John F Kennedy in 1963, Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Bill Clinton in 1995.

In his 30-minute address, the president praised the “enduring” strength of the Ireland-US relationship as he promised “a future poised for unlimited shared possibilities”.

He was welcomed with sustained, rapturous applause as he entered the chamber in Dublin’s Leinster House for what he called “one of the great honours of my career”.

Asking to be forgiven for his attempt at speaking Irish, he said “Ta me sa bhaile” (I am home). Alastair Jamieson has the full report:

Tanaiste Micheal Martin said it had been a “very special week” for Ireland as Joe Biden continues his visit.

Mr Martin told RTE’s Morning Ireland programme: “It has been a very special week insofar as it captures that special relationship with this president and the American people in terms of a shared past, and in many ways it’s a tribute to the legacy of that past given his own personal family story of emigration.

“But it is also a tribute to rich possibility of the future which I think he did focus on very significantly. In addition to that it is about shared values, it is about faith in the rules-based international order.

“Given all that is happening in the world today in terms of the war in Ukraine and the climate change existential challenge that he referred to, that sense of nations, particularly those that are committed to rules-based order and a value system, is very important. He did focus a lot over the last number of days on values.”