Biden visits County Mayo, wrapping up State visit to Ireland

By Susy Hodges

President Biden’s address in Ballina spoke about the importance of peace, family, and the ties between Ireland and America, saying he and his siblings were raised with a fierce pride in their Irish ancestry. 

He was speaking to tens of thousands of people in front of a cathedral that his great great great grandfather Edward Blewitt helped to build.

Ballina was the hometown of Blewitt who later emigrated to the United States with his wife and children.

Referring to the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement that brought an end to decades of violence in Northern Ireland, Biden said it was a reminder of the importance of peace and what can be accomplished when “we work together in common cause.”

Visit to the Shrine of Knock

Earlier on Friday, Biden had an emotional reunion with the priest who administered the Last Rites to his son Beau. A former Delaware Attorney General, Beau Biden died from brain cancer in 2015.  The unexpected meeting came when the U.S. president visited the Marian Shrine at Knock in County Mayo and discovered that the priest who had performed the Last Rites for Beau had moved to Knock from Washington.

The two men met for 10 minutes, prayed and a decade of the rosary was said for Biden’s family. The parish priest who brought about the meeting said it was a wonderful spontaneous event and that President Biden was crying during the reunion as it really affected him.  

The Marian shrine at Knock is a popular pilgrimage site for the faithful coming from around the world. In 1879, parishioners in Knock reported seeing an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph, John the Evangelist, and the Lamb of God.

The shrine at Knock was officially recognized as an international Eucharistic and Marian Shrine by Pope Francis in 2021.