President Joe Biden’s links to Ireland are deep and steeped in the history of Co. Louth. Little did James Finnegan know, that when he left Carlingford to set sail for the USA to start a new life there, in the late 1840s, that his great grandson Joe Biden would one day become President. It is a story of the Irish in America and one that the people of Carlingford are very proud of.
On Sunday, November 8th, following the completion of the electoral count, locals in Carlingford, along with Biden’s distant cousins, ‘The Finnegans’ who live in the town, celebrated the news of the election of Irish descendant, Joe Biden, as America’s 46th President. A large crowd gathered in the town to honour this Irish connection and a parade was held in his honour. The Carlingford Pipe Band paid tribute to the new President-elect with a special new anthem called ‘Our Local Joe’.
These Irish routes have been traced back for generations, with eight of his great great grandparents on his mother’s side and two of his great great grandparents on his father’s side, born in Ireland.
America’s new President is very proud of his Irish roots. In a letter sent in 2016, ahead of his visit to Ireland, he wrote: “I’ve been honoured to have held a lot of titles, but I have always been, and always will be, the son of a Finnegan, the Grandson of Geraldine Finnegan from St. Paul’s parish in Scranton, and a proud descendant of the Finnegans of Ireland’s County Louth.”
The President’s mother, Jean Finnegan, was born in the US to Ambrose Finnegan and Geraldine Blewitt. Geraldine Blewitt’s roots stem from Ballina in Co. Mayo. Ambrose Finnegan’s father, James Finnegan, arrived in New York on the SS Marchioness of Bute in the late 1840s with his mother and two younger brothers when he was just seven years old. James’ father, understood to be a 24-year-old shoemaker called Owen Finnegan, had arrived a year earlier onboard the SS Isaac Wright. James Finnegan went on to marry Catherine Roche, who parents Thomas and Bridget Roche were also born in Ireland.
Today, on the day of his inauguration, we celebrate President Biden’s Irish roots and the deep relations between our two great countries. In particular, we celebrate his roots to our beautiful town of Carlingford, and we hope that he will visit his ancestral home soon again. The road ahead will not be an easy one for America’s new President, but here in Carlingford, and from all of us at Carlingford Lough Ferry, we say ‘Go n-eirí an t-ádh leat’ – may luck rise with you Mr. President and every success as you lead America through its next chapter.
