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

Air Force One has touched down in Co Mayo.

US president Joe Biden is in the west of Ireland to round off his four-day trip to the island.

The plane - a smaller version of the aircraft in which he arrived in Dublin on Wednesday - landed at what is officially known as Ireland West Airport.

Mr Biden is due to visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, a Catholic pilgrimage site.

He is also set to visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit, and later give a public address at a cathedral in Ballina - the town where some of his ancestors came from.

They’re hanging out blue, red and white bunting and flags in Ballina, Co Mayo.

Joe Biden spent a few minutes on the tarmac at Ireland West Airport as he and his sister Valerie Biden Owens were greeted by dignitaries.

“It’s good to be back,” he said as he began to shake hands.

Former Irish president Mary Robinson said Ballina in Co Mayo was “full of excitement”.

Ms Robinson, who is from Ballina, met Mr Biden during an event at Dublin Castle on Thursday. She told Mr Biden about the “famous light in a window” of the Irish president’s official residence Aras an Uachtarain.

She said she expected Mr Biden‘s speech in Ballina to reference the Irish tradition of placing a light in the window to guide the way of strangers in the night.

Visible from the main road outside the president’s residence the light is a symbolic beacon, “lighting the way for Irish emigrants and their descendants, welcoming them to their homeland”.

It remains an important symbol for the Irish diaspora.

“I think he’ll mention the light when he speaks because we were in tune last night,” she said.

The US president has again hailed his Irish roots, as he tweeted how “great it was to see old friends and family – and make some new ones”.

Joe Biden has arrived at Knock Shrine in Co Mayo, where he was met by cheering crowds waving Ireland, US and Mayo flags.

Knock shrine is a Catholic pilgrimage site, where locals claimed to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary in 1879. The site was visited by Pope Francis in 2018, and several popes before him.

The president will be given a tour of the shrine and meet the parish priest, Father Richard Gibbons.

After his visit to Knock, he will visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit, and later give a public address at a cathedral in Ballina – the town where some of his ancestors came from.

Asked about Joe Biden’s public speeches during his visit, former Irish president Mary Robinson said he had managed to link in a clear pleasure of “being back home” with serious messaging, such as powersharing in Northern Ireland, the war in Ukraine and climate change.

“He talked about the economic development but he said it will also include the rights of workers being respected,” Ms Robinson said. “That is so important for a United States president in, you know, in our world today that we understand the rights of workers.

“He spoke about climate change. He spoke about AI, about the enormous promise and the enormous concern. He talked about it as an inflection point.

“You know, he had the ability to have serious messages among all the folksy biggest hope for the Irish, which we love, but serious messages were there.”

Joe Biden touched the apparition wall as part of his tour of the Knock shrine in Co Mayo, where locals claimed in 1879 to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary.

Accompanied by parish priest Fr Richard Gibbons, the US president then entered the Apparition Chapel for some moments of quiet reflection.

It followed a tour of the Knock basilica.

Joe Biden is “really buzzed up” about being in Mayo, said the area’s local MP, who met him off the plane at Knock airport.

Mayo TD Dara Calleary said the US president is someone who is “invested” in his trip to the county, where some of his ancestors hail from.

“He’s really buzzed up about coming to Ballina, looking forward to speaking outside the cathedral and very much invested in his trip to Mayo today,” Mr Calleary said. “We were chatting about that and it was a very relaxed chat. He’s thrilled to be here, and thrilled to be at Knock airport.

“He’s very invested in this trip. This is his third time in six years (visiting Ireland). This is not somebody coming looking for his roots. He knows his roots, he understands his roots and he understands the importance of those roots.”

Mr Calleary said he believes the visit will “be a boost for Ballina” but that it is something that must be built on, saying: “We’ll enjoy the excitement and we’ll enjoy the occasion but we all have to put our minds together as to how we build on that legacy and that work will begin next week.”

After his tour of Knock, it is believed that Joe Biden could also make a private visit to the Mayo Roscommon Hospice in Castlebar which is dedicated to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015.