DUBLIN (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden told the Irish Parliament he was “home” in a moving speech on the second day of a nostalgic three-day trip to celebrate his Irish heritage as he prepares for his re-election campaign planned in 2024.
“I’m home… I just wish I could stay longer,” he said, to applause and cheers from the packed auditorium.
In one of the longest foreign trips of his presidential term, Biden became the fourth president of the United States to address the Irish Parliament after John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. An official banquet is planned for the evening.
“Well, Mom, I said it would happen,” he said, looking up at the sky at the beginning of his speech, after he also met some of his late mother’s relatives on Wednesday.
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Biden began his journey on a more serious note in Northern Ireland, where on Wednesday he urged local political leaders to restore a power-sharing government with the promise of significant US government investment.
But once he crossed the border after that speech, Biden turned to folktales from his Irish relatives and photos with excited locals.
His great-grandfather, Owen Finnegan, left the Irish county of Louth for the United States in 1849. On Friday, Biden is scheduled to meet relatives across from his family in County Mayo, on the opposite coast of Ireland.
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