DUBLIN – The President Joe Biden On Wednesday, she climbed the stone steps of an ancient castle in the Republic of Ireland, pausing to gaze out over the iron-gray Irish Sea where her maternal great-great-grandfather sailed to America in 1849.

Ashore, bagpipers sang an original song, titled “A Biden Return,” to celebrate the 80-year-old’s last visit to his homeland.

Irish rain soaked the President’s baseball cap.

In other words, this was Joe Biden at his best.

“It’s wonderful,” Biden yelled from the castle. Biden yelled from the castle at a group of reporters.

“I feel at home”.

Biden’s century-long tour kicked off after a whirlwind trip to Belfast, Northern Ireland, earlier in the day to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a peace deal that ended sectarian violence in the region.

But neither Biden nor his top advisers have shown any interest in discussing the ongoing political fray in Northern Ireland or any other global issue, including the war in Ukraine.

Instead, the president has looked to the past, particularly his Irish heritage, which has shaped his public identity and political outlook.

“In my opinion, the Irish are the only people in the world who miss the future,” Biden said.

“Think about it. It’s because, more than anything else in my experience, hope is what beats in the hearts of all people, particularly in the hearts of the Irish. Hope. Every action is about hope.”

Biden came here to learn more about his ties to families. Finnegan and Blewitt, his maternal clan of County Louth and County Mayo, whose descendants settled near Scranton, Pennsylvania. (Ballina, County Mayo, Biden noted on Wednesday, is a sister city to Scranton.)

Those Finnegan and Blewitt raised a future American president on a steady diet of family lore, Irish poetry, and a ruthless sense of pride:

“Remember, Joey, the best drop of blood in you is Irish,” his grandfather recounted to him as a child.

His family identity It was central to his legacy, but it was also, at times, his greatest political vulnerability.

Hunter Biden, the president’s 53-year-old son, whose financial dealings are being investigated by the House Oversight Committee, traveled to Ireland with his father aboard Air Force One, even as prominent US Republicans have criticized the president for making the trip .

In an interview with Fox News On Tuesday evening, former President Donald Trump accused his successor of not paying attention to the world’s problems.

“The world is exploding around us,” Trump said.

“We could end up in a third world war and this guy will be in Ireland.”

If the criticisms reached Biden, he didn’t show them. In the days leading up to the trip, the White House answered several questions about who would travel with him, for how long and at what cost.

Officials said Biden was upholding the tradition of presidents from Kennedy to Obama who had made similar trips before.

Ultimately, Biden kept the family contingent small compared to the group that accompanied him on his six-day tour of Ireland as vice president in 2016, according to aides.

Thus, in County Louth, Biden visited the church and cemetery of Kilwirra, where some of his ancestors were baptized, stopping for lunch with family members, including several grandchildren, at Fitzpatrick’s restaurant and pub.

He also visited the Lily Finnegan’s Pubwhich, according to the authorities, once belonged to some distant relatives.

This time a notable Biden was missing:

Jill Biden, the first lady, who stayed because she had to teach, according to Elizabeth Alexander, her communications director.

Jill Biden doesn’t always attend Biden family outings, including her husband’s visit in 2016.

When Joe Biden left Washington for his latest trip, he told reporters he decided to bring “two members of my family who have never been there before.”

The president’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, who visited Ireland with Biden in 2016, also made the trip.

Brother and sister are so proud of their Irish heritage that when Joe Biden was running for vice president, Biden Owens lobbied the Secret Service on their behalf to change their codename protocol for the people they protect.

Biden’s was supposed to start with a “K,” but his sister convinced agents to use one that alluded to his Irish heritage: Celtic.

“For President Biden, Ireland is not just a place where his ancestors lived – it is deeply ingrained in his identity,” said Shailagh Murray, a former senior adviser to Biden.

“His Irishness is intertwined with his faith, his fierce devotion to his family and his empathy for people who are struggling.”

On Wednesday, Biden Owens and Hunter Biden they accompanied the president on his tour of a fire station, a pub and a deli.

At one point, Hunter Biden held up an umbrella to protect his father from the rain.

In an earlier meeting with US embassy workers, he told Biden:

“You should line up for the rope, Dad,” a reference to supporters who had lined up to greet the president.

“Do I have to queue?” his father asked.

“Just to say hello to everyone,” Hunter Biden replied.

“Returning as president and seeing the warm response from the people of his family’s homeland will likely be a shocking moment for the Bidens,” Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s former director of communications, said in a message.

Hunter Biden, Biden Owens, distant relatives and friends joined the revelry across the Irish countryside as Biden’s entourage traveled from Dublin to Dundalk.

At Carlingford Castle, County Louth, the President toured with ex-professional rugby player Rob Kearney, his fifth cousin in direct line, and with Michael MartinIrish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Perhaps no modern president has embraced his Irish-American heritage as enthusiastically as Biden.

“Do you know who designed the White House? An Irishman,” he said proudly in a speech at Ulster University Belfast.

Pride in her heritage has been instilled in her since childhood when her fatherJoseph R. Biden Sr.., fell into financial difficulty and moved the family to his maternal grandfather’s house, a house crammed with Finnegan and Blewitt.

They were faithful and proud Catholics, and they practiced hard feelings.

In his memoir, Biden wrote that one of his aunts approached him and told him that her dislike of his father wasn’t personal.

“Your father is not a bad man,” Biden wrote his Aunt Gertie told him.

“He’s only English. But he’s a good man.”

As president, Biden used a humble nickname to sign the letters, calling himself “a son of Catherine Eugenie Biden,” a reference to a mother who instructed her Catholic son never to kneel before the Queen of England.

At different times Wednesday, Biden indulged in a kind of tradition of his own:

his memories of the Senate, verbose and sometimes rosy.

When asked by a child what the key to success was, Biden recounted — over several minutes — how as a young senator he had rejected Senator J’s views.they helmof which he said he was not “very crazy about African Americans”.

She said she later learned it was important not to question people’s motives when she learned that Helms had adopted a special needs child.

“If you question his motives, you never agree,” Biden said.

The next person asked how the presidential dogs were doing.

“They’re doing well,” Biden replied. (There is only one presidential dog).

The president ended his day in the wood-panelled dining room of Dundalk’s Windsor Bar and Restaurant, surrounded by distant relatives.

As he spoke, he asked Hunter Biden to stand up for the applause.

“When you’re here,” said Joe Biden, looking around the room, “you wonder why anyone would want to leave.”

c.2023 The New York Times Society