https://sputnikglobe.com/20230412/joe-biden-claims-hes-irish-but-does-he-really-have-links-to-the-emerald-isle-1109380557.html
Joe Biden Claims He's Irish. But Does He Really Have Links to the Emerald Isle?
Joe Biden Claims He's Irish. But Does He Really Have Links to the Emerald Isle?
Sputnik International
Joe Biden has claimed Irish ancestry throughout his political career to attract the Irish-American vote. But is that just another of his tall tales, like being arrested in while trying to visit Nelson Mandela in jail?
2023-04-12T12:34+0000
2023-04-12T12:34+0000
2023-04-13T12:42+0000
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US President Joe Biden is visiting Ireland this week — a country he claims as his ancestral homeland.He insisted several times during the 2020 election campaign that "I'm Irish" — including once as a cryptic swipe when asked about his views on the UK's looming exit from the European Union.More recently, Biden drew fire for playing up the stereotype of the Irish as "stupid" on two occasions — seemingly as joke about accusations that his mental faculties are failing.The president has also repeatedly boasted of his Roman Catholic faith during election speeches, despite supporting abortion and ordering schools to allow male transgender students to compete in girls' sports.Given that Biden is a French surname and that the 80-year-old president was born in Pennsylvania, a US state settled by German colonists, how credible is his claim to origins in the Emerald Isle?Finnegan's WakeBiden traces his Irish ancestry through his mother, Catherine Finnegan. The Finnegans hailed from the the Cooley Peninsula in the eastern County Louth, while another set of ancestors, the Blewitt family, lived in County Mayo on the west coast.While he was still serving as vice president to Barack Obama in 2016, the White House asked the Irish Family History Centre to look into Biden's heritage ahead of an official visit to the Republic of Ireland.They declared that 10 of Biden's 16 great-great-grandparents came from Ireland, making him five-eighths Irish.One of them, Patrick Blewitt, emigrated from Ireland to the US in 1850 during the potato famine that greatly de-populated Ireland, then fully under British rule. Biden's great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt hailed from the town of Ballina in Mayo, where locals turned out to welcome the president this week.But Biden's family tree also contains English and Protestant French Huguenot ancestry — hence his French surname. As a fourth-generation US native, he is about as Irish as apple pie on the fourth of July.
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Joe Biden Claims He's Irish. But Does He Really Have Links to the Emerald Isle?
12:34 GMT 12.04.2023 (Updated: 12:42 GMT 13.04.2023) Joe Biden has claimed Irish ancestry throughout his political career to attract the Irish-American vote. But is that just another one of his tall tales, like his poolside fight with “Cornpop” and being arrested while trying to visit Nelson Mandela in jail?
US President Joe Biden is visiting Ireland this week — a country he claims as his ancestral homeland.
He insisted several times during the 2020 election campaign that "I'm Irish" — including once as a cryptic swipe when asked about his views on the UK's looming exit from the European Union.
More recently, Biden drew fire for playing up the
stereotype of the Irish as "stupid" on
two occasions — seemingly as joke about accusations that his mental faculties are failing.
The president has also repeatedly boasted of his Roman Catholic faith during election speeches, despite supporting abortion and ordering schools to allow male transgender students to compete in girls' sports.
Given that Biden is a French surname and that the 80-year-old president was born in Pennsylvania, a US state settled by German colonists, how credible is his claim to origins in the Emerald Isle?
Biden traces his Irish ancestry through his mother,
Catherine Finnegan. The Finnegans hailed from the the Cooley Peninsula in the eastern County Louth, while another set of ancestors, the Blewitt family, lived in County Mayo on the west coast.
While he was still serving as vice president to Barack Obama in 2016, the White House asked the Irish Family History Centre to look into Biden's heritage ahead of an official visit to the Republic of Ireland.
They declared that 10 of Biden's 16 great-great-grandparents came from Ireland, making him five-eighths Irish.
One of them, Patrick Blewitt, emigrated from Ireland to the US in 1850 during the potato famine that greatly de-populated Ireland, then fully under British rule. Biden's great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt hailed from the town of Ballina in Mayo, where locals turned out to welcome the president this week.
But Biden's family tree also contains English and Protestant French Huguenot ancestry — hence his French surname. As a fourth-generation US native, he is about as Irish as apple pie on the fourth of July.
