Former US president Joe Biden has said he left Ireland feeling he could be “elected president” here after his State visit in 2023.
In extracts from his upcoming memoir Promise Me, America, to be published on November 17th, Biden said the visit “restored my soul and revived my spirit”.
He wrote: “The trip had restored my soul and revived my spirit, which I’d needed. I knew I was headed home for the fight of my political life.
“I left feeling I could be elected president in Ireland. Now I was about to find out if I could be reelected president in the United States.”
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Biden dropped out of the race for the White House the following year after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. He then backed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination before losing to Trump in 2024.
Biden also recalled a chance meeting with Fr Frank O’Grady at Knock Shrine. Fr O’Grady, then the US army chaplain at Walter Reed Medical Centre, performed the last rites sacrament on his son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
“The sight of him brought tears to my eyes,” Biden wrote.
Biden also said he has good memories of his address at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina on April 14th, 2023, in front of 27,000 “wildly enthusiastic” people.
“The trip was an emotionally resonant one for me.”
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Looking back on the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, in 2021, Biden discussed his anger with Brexit.
“Brexit threatened to undermine the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which had done so much good in bringing peace to Northern Ireland. That was important to me, as a proud Irish American.
“I also disapproved of Brexit for its ultranationalist claims, and for making many promises that could not possibly be kept.”
He believed “populist leaders and opportunists” had “sold the British people out” by backing Brexit.
However, he said he “preferred to work out our differences in private”, particularly because former UK prime minister Boris Johnson was the host of the event.
In another notable section, Biden reveals his admiration for the late Queen Elizabeth, despite being on record about his Irish American mother’s anti-English sentiment.
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He also said the queen reminded him of his mother.
“She and I had a natural rapport, which might have surprised my mother, to put it mildly. Mom’s Irish blood made it difficult for her to admire the British crown, and she remembered historical grievances as if she had experienced them personally.
“In fact (I can’t believe I’m about to say this), the queen’s steely strength, combined with the glint of humour in her eye, reminded me of no one as much as Catherine Eugenia Finnegan.”
Biden has often spoken about his admiration for Irish literature and poetry, including the works of Seamus Heaney.
He reveals he took inspiration from James Joyce in his 2020 inaugural address.
“In my first letter, I had shared some words attributed to James Joyce: ‘When I die, Dublin will be written on my heart.’ I returned to them here. Because of you, Delaware will forever be written on my heart. I’ll see you back home.”
