President Joe Biden's Irish connection

St Muredach's Cathedral by River Moy, Ballina

In recently published articles here I reviewed the chapters in Terry Reilly's book - Ballina & Area People - dealing with Catholic missionaries from the North Mayo area, in the northwest of Ireland, and with Fr Patrick Peyton. Another timely chapter in the book outlines the connection of President Joe Biden with the Ballina area. Terry Reilly has gone into great detail in researching the Biden family roots and how his presidency may benefit the North Mayo area in the years ahead. This is a summary of his work.

Biden's great-great-grandfather, Patrick Blewitt, was born in the town in 1832 and baptised in St Muredach's Cathedral. He was son of Edward Blewitt, (c.1795-1872) also of Ballina, and Mary Reddington who was born at Ardagh a few miles outside the town. They married in the mid-1820s. The family moved in 1832 from the town to Ardagh settling close to Rappa Castle. It is believed they left to escape an outbreak of cholera raging through the town. It struck towards the end of August.

Patrick Blewitt worked in Ballina for a short time before leaving for America in 1850, when he was just 17, taking a job as a sailor before returning to bring his parents and siblings back to America. The SS Excelsior's manifest of 28 June 1851 recorded that Edward and Mary were both 44, and were accompanied by eight children, namely John (20), Patrick (18), Maria (15), Michael (13), Thomas (11), Edward (10), Catherine (7) and Rob (4). The Great Famine had ravaged Ireland from 1845 - 1849 when the potato crop failed due to disease over a number of years causing thousands of deaths and many thousands more emigrating, especially to the USA. Between 1841 and 1851, the population of Mayo dropped from 388,887 to 274,999. The county was decimated with the dead often being buried without coffins in shallow graves.

Edward Blewitt had worked at Ballina brickyard which supplied the 27,000 bricks used in the construction of St Muredach's Cathedral in 1827. He later became a surveyor working on the Ordnance Survey, a precise mapping operation carried out by British Army engineers, that recorded every physical landmark. Later, he became an applotter - a geographical surveyor and valuer - for the valuation office (Griffith Valuation), and in the 1840s he worked as an overseer at the Ballina Poor Law Union that ran the local Work House - a place for the poor and destitute which housed up to 1,200 people during the famine.

The Blewitts settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania where huge numbers of exiles from North Mayo had settled having found work as miners, extracting coal from deep, dangerous mines. Others built the Lackawanna and Western Railroad northward to link up with the Erie Railroad in Great Bend, Pennsylvania. As miners they were seen as cheap labour: their pay was low, the hours long and the risks high. Children as young as eight or nine worked 14-hour days separating slate from coal in the breakers. This was a terrible abuse of children but, sadly, we witness it today in the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in other developing countries.

In the 30-year period up to 1900, Scranton's population increased more than tenfold, boosted mainly by the Irish, Italians, Germans and Polish, the vast majority of whom were Catholic.

Irish exiles in Scranton quickly organised, so that by 1862 they were able to stage their first St Patrick's Day parade. Today, hosted by the St Patrick's Day Parade Association of Lackawanna County, it is America's fourth largest in attendance and second largest in per capita attendance. Upwards of 8,000 people participate and the estimated attendance has been as high as 150,000. Ballina has been twinned with Scranton since 1990, and several exchange visits have taken place.

Ballina emigrant, Patrick Blewitt, died on 25 November 1911. His son, Edward F Blewitt, who was born in New Orleans in 1859 was elected to the US Senate in 1907. His daughter, Geraldine, married Ambrose Finnegan whose ancestors were from Co. Louth. Their daughter, Jean, born in 1917 married Joe Biden. Their son - now President Biden - was born in Scranton on 20 November 1942, the oldest in a family of four. His father suffered a financial set-back, and the family moved in with the Biden's maternal grandparents. With Scranton in decline in the 1950s, the Biden family moved to Delaware where the father became a successful used car salesman.

Suffering from a stammer which he has managed to control and give hope to others with speech impediments, the young Biden found it useful to recite poetry before a mirror, his favourite poets being William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney and Ralph Waldo Emerson. While at college he was a very active sportsman, and at the Archmere Academy in Claymont was rated as a standout halfback and wide receiver. He also played baseball. Because of his stammer and 'ribbing' at school, he admits to being a poor student, but he showed early leadership by being class president in his junior and senior years, graduating in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and in 1965 a double major in history and political science.

He became a lawyer and settled down to married life. Out of the blue, 1972 became a year of highs and tragic lows. First, as a Democrat, he was elected to the US Senate - the sixth youngest senator in American history - but a month before he was due to be sworn in, his wife Nellie and baby daughter Naomi were killed in an horrific car crash while out doing their Christmas shopping. His sons Beau (4) and Hunter (3) were hospitalised with serious injuries. "I felt God had played a horrible trick on me," he said later, revealing that he had contemplated suicide. His sister Valerie and his second wife, Jill - with whom he has a daughter, Ashley -were his rocks. He went on to serve in the Senate for 36 years, and for two terms as Vice-President to Barack Obama, who awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction in 2017.

Biden had contemplated contesting the 2016 Presidential election, but tragedy struck again. His son, Beau, Attorney General in Delaware and a former US Army Major, died of brain cancer in 2015, aged 46. In dealing with that enormous loss Biden revealed one of his great gifts, "an almost preternatural ability to share pain and grief, seeking emotional connection in every encounter".

Tracing his Irish Roots

In 2016, he announced in an open letter that he was going back to Ireland - "the country from which my ancestors hailed, and a country whose independence the Easter Rising set in motion 100 years ago this year. It is my first dedicated trip to this nation as Vice-President during which I'll meet with the country's leaders, discuss issues of trade, economic recovery, migration and refugee policy, and other national security challenges, and celebrate our shared heritage. Our shared values of tolerance, diversity, inclusiveness. And it's a trip I'm so deeply grateful to be taking alongside my children and grandchildren… Over the course of my life, I've been to a lot of places. I've travelled all around the world - more than a million miles on Air Force Two alone. I've been honoured to have held a lot of titles. But I have always been and will always be the son of Kitty Finnegan. The grandson of Geraldine Finnegan from St Paul's parish in Scranton; a proud descendant of the Finnegans of Ireland's County Louth. The great-great-great-grandson of a man named Edward Francis Blewitt, whose roots stem from Ballina, a small town in Ireland's County Mayo - sister city to my hometown in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

"He was an engineer with a poet's heart. Months after my mother passed away, I found an old box of his poems in my attic. In his poetry, my great-grandfather spoke of both continents, and how his heart and his soul drew from the old and the new. And most of all, he was proud. He was proud of his ancestors. He was proud of his blood. He was proud of his city. He was proud of his state, his country. But most of all - he was proud of his family. And that is America. This notion that home is where your character is etched. As Americans, we all hail from many homes. Somewhere along the line, someone in our lineage arrived on our shores, filled with hope. we are blessed to experience that simultaneous pride in where we've found ourselves, while never forgetting our roots. James Joyce wrote, 'when I die, Dublin will be written on my heart'. Well, Northeast Pennsylvania will be written on my heart. But Ireland will be written on my soul. And as we join the world in celebrating everything that Ireland has become, and indeed everything that she has always been, I could not be more honoured to be returning."

Visit to Mayo

With pride, Terry Reilly, points out how Biden's walk-about in Ballina in June 2016 was massive with him criss-crossing streets to shake hands and pose for photographs. Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny, a native of near-by Castlebar and who had taken some of Reilly's books to Biden in the White House over the years, introduced him to the man who is now President. He wrote: "With a firm handshake, a big smile and sparkling, engaging eyes, he chatted amiably and with interest. He has the gift of making people feel at ease, like old friends. Meeting up with so many cousins was a most memorable part of his Ballina visit. He got a chance to chat with 22 of them over an evening meal in Anthony Heffernan's restaurant on the Market Square."

Second Visit in 2017

When the future President Biden cut the sod for the new Mayo-Roscommon Hospice in Castlebar on 12 September 2017, he was accompanied by his brother Jimmy and nephew Jamie. He was unable to attend in person at the official opening of the hospice in October 2019 because of the election campaign, but he sent a video message.

Ballina hopes to reap some benefits

Cousin Joe Blewitt, a local plumber in Ballina who has met the President three or four times, said it was "unreal" to know someone who was going to be the President of the United States. "I was in the White House a few years ago and it was a cool place to be in, so I am looking forward to going back again... It's great for Ballina, the mural has attracted a lot of attention. we sent him a picture - he couldn't get over it," he added.

Councillor Mark Duffy said the coverage received for the town was incredible and had reached every corner of the globe. Millions of readers and viewers across the world had read of Ballina and its Biden connections, he said, noting that CNN had covered the local angle, as had Sky News, Fox News, BBC, ABC, Reuters, The Seattle Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, RTÉ, Newstalk, and media outlets in Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland and France. "When borders reopen to US tourists, Ballina can expect a huge uptake in visitors… it could be a game changer. We have had such a bleak and dark history, when people had to emigrate to the UK and Australia and the US, and to go at such a difficult and sad time in Irish history. To have gone and worked for generations, to live that American dream, and for a descendant of an Irish emigrant to reach the highest office in the land is hugely symbolic," Cllr. Duffy added.

Anne-Marie Flynn, Manager of North Mayo Tourism, said the election and Biden's Ballina connection had shone a light on the town in a way that had never happened before. She believed 'the Biden effect' and associated publicity will entice more visitors from around the world. "Ballina and North Mayo always has - and always will - continue to welcome our friends, family and visitors from the US, regardless of political persuasion" she said.

The CEO of Ballina Chamber of Commerce, Mags Downey-Martin, described the election result as a fairy-tale story of an Irish emigrant leaving to better his and his family's life in North Pennsylvania, and now, nearly 170 years later, his offspring is US President. "Never was there such a genuine family connection with an American President… this is such a proud and emotional time for the people of Ballina as he has family living in the town. What is even more special is that Scranton is the twin town of Ballina."

Welcoming the election result, the Mayor of Ballina Municipal Council, Seamus Weir, was confident an even stronger relationship between North Mayo and the United States would develop. "It is a huge boost for North Mayo tourism… many Americans will surely be enticed to visit the home of Joe Biden's ancestral roots. The timing is right given Brexit and all the other challenges facing us. I believe his policies could have a big bearing on our economic future. Let me add that it is a very proud moment for all the family connections in these parts," he said.

Ballina has competition in laying claim to Joe Biden's ancestors. His great-grandfather James Finnegan and great-grandmother Catherine lived in Cooley, Co. Louth before they too emigrated to America in the 1850's. During his visit to Ireland as vice-president in 2016 Biden visited the Cooley Peninsula, including Carlingford, and met some of his cousins there. The Cooley connection is another story.

An English Connection

Terry Reilly has detailed very well the Ballina ancestral connection with President Biden. Maybe, someone in Cooley will do likewise with the connection there. One piece missing so far in this ancestral story is that of the Biden side of the family. Where are the Biden roots?

British author and historian, Ben McIntyre, shed some light on this in his article in The Times on 15 January 2021. He wrote: "Back in 2013, Biden asserted that his great-great-great-great-grandfather, whom he names as George Biden, 'was a captain in the East India Trading Company' who settled in India with an Indian wife. There is no record of a George Biden in India but the ancestor in question might be one of the Biden brothers, William and Christopher, from Derbyshire who joined the East India Company as teenagers."

Meanwhile, Sussex has laid claim to Biden's ancestral roots too. Writer, historian, and genealogist, Eddy Greenfield, writing in "The Chichester Observer" on 13 November 2020 claimed: "it is clear that Joe Biden has his English roots firmly in Sussex".

Whatever about his English roots, Biden's Irish roots have been firmly established by Terry Reilly in his book - Ballina & Area People - which is an excellent read for anyone with an interest in how people make and shape the history of a place, like Ballina and North Mayo. The book, which I highly recommend, can be obtained online from: www.terry-reilly.com. It costs €20 plus postage.

In 2023, Ballina will celebrate the tercentenary of its establishment as a town. A programme of celebrations is being planned, and further details can be found at: www.Ballina2023.ie.

Matt Moran is a writer and author living in Cork in the Republic of Ireland and is a native of Ballina. Author of "The Legacy of Irish Missionaries Lives On", his forthcoming book is "The Theology of Integral Human Development: The Role of Faith in International Development and Public Affairs".