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A WALK ABOUT Dundalk, a trip to the Áras and a big address to the crowds in Ballina – these are just some things that US President Joe Biden is expected to get up to in Ireland next week.
It’s been the worst-kept secret over the last number of months that a trip was forthcoming, and yesterday the White House finally confirmed that Biden will travel here for four days next week.
So what do we know so far about the trip?
Biden will be in Belfast on 11 and 12 April to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
“President Biden will first travel to Belfast, Northern Ireland from April 11-12 to mark the tremendous progress since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago and to underscore the readiness of the United States to support Northern Ireland’s vast economic potential to the benefit of all communities,” the White House statement confirmed yesterday.
Security vehicles used to transport and protect Biden have already been seen arriving in Northern Ireland.
The details around the Northern Ireland leg of the trip are vague, but there has been some speculation that Biden will be staying in Hillsborough Castle and that there will be a formal reception with cross-party politicians, as well as those that played a role in the Good Friday Agreement.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to be in Northern Ireland during the visit of the US president, PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne has told the Policing Board.
Byrne said: “Engagements have been planned for a number of parts of the Greater Belfast area and the Prime Minister is also expected to visit Northern Ireland during this time.”
While the itinerary is subject to change, security sources have indicated to The Journal the current plan is that upon leaving Northern Ireland on Wednesday, the US president will go for a “walkabout” in Dundalk.
Biden’s great-grandfather, James Finnegan, emigrated from Louth as a child in 1850.
The US president is due to arrive into Dublin on Wednesday evening.
There is still speculation about where he will stay in the capital, with Farmleigh House, the US Ambassador’s residence and the Merrion Hotel all mentioned as possibilities.
There is a full agenda on Thursday 13 April, with Biden expected to make a trip to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet with President Michael D Higgins.
Biden is also set to address a joint sitting of the Dáil and Seanad on Thursday at approximately 3pm.
The Ceann Comhairle, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, the Clerk of the Dáil and the Oireachtas management team all met with the White House advance party in Leinster House yesterday.
Additional cameras have already been installed in the halls of Leinster House to capture the walk through of the US president through the building and up the stairs that lead to the Dáil chamber.
Biden will be the fourth US president to do so – following John F Kennedy’s address in June 1963, Ronald Reagan’s in June 1984 and Bill Clinton’s in December 1995.
An event is also due to take place at Dublin Castle on Thursday, with a possible State reception on the cards.
On Friday, Biden will travel to Knock according to security sources, where it is speculated he will pay a visit to the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation.
Sources within government have said such a visit is definitely “in the mix” as Biden turned the first sod on the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation project in 2017.
His cousin, Laurita Blewit, who was recently in attendance at the White House shamrock ceremony with her husband Joe Brolly, is also one of the leading fundraisers.
The Mayo hospice building in Castlebar was opened in 2019, while the Roscommon building opened its palliative care unit in 2021.
In a YouTube video in 2021, Biden sent his best wishes to those involved in the project.
In the video he spoke about the “deeply moving experience” of visiting the area and turning the sod on the development in 2017.
“As many of you know, my family traveled to Ireland in 2016. We felt so much love and it was also bittersweet since it was a trip that I had hoped to share with our son Beau, to come together and touch the soil of our Irish roots and our family’s history and heritage.
“The fact that it’s Beau’s name and memory woven into the tapestry of this hospice is something my family and I and his children in particular will never ever forget,” Biden said.
Beau Biden, the president’s son, died in 2015 after a two-year battle with brain cancer.
From Knock, it is expected that Biden will make his way to his ancestral home in Ballina, Co Mayo, where the locals are already planning to roll out the red carpet for his return.
Biden’s great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewit emigrated from the town almost 200 years ago, having worked as a brick-maker and as a civil engineer helping to map Ireland.
He first visited Ballina in June 2016 as US vice-president.
Biden is to round out his trip to Ireland with a homecoming speech to the public in Ballina, which will take place outside St Muredach’s Cathedral in the town on Friday afternoon.
The US embassy said in a statement that the event is open to the public and anyone wishing to attend the event should register here.
Additional reporting by Niall O’Connor and Press Association
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Why not call it what it is “a petrol station”
Maybe a gas station?!
Bob’s place…..?
Stay classy Moneygall.
And theres those in Wexford still living off JFKs visit. Opening some new centre or something the other day. Fair play and good luck to both places.
Wexford has never had a JFK plaza. There’s a beautiful park in New Ross, the odd housing estate, but nothing as well fookin’ klassy as chipper and petrol station!
Does Supermacs still get its staff for free from Jobbridge?
Constriction????
How will Barack Obama contain his excitement???
By pumping a few gallons of gasoline one presumes=)
Read the entire article assuming it was some kind of civic/market square. Plaza is a bit misleading for a service station. Good jobs news I guess, but weird article.
Moneygall has a population of about 300 people. Jobs for 60 people (20% of the population) is fantastic for the village. Well done Pat and Una Mc Donagh.
Barack will be happy when he returns to see a nice big plaza station for his entourage of cars. Enda could do with more ideas for jobs like this around the country.
Did I read it right when it said “the only major purpose built motorway service facility on the new M7 route between Dublin and Limerick”, what about Mayfield?
aah where’s mayfield?
Is it really between dublin and limerick?
There is also a service station and services planned for Exit 27 at Birdhill. Planning pending. So it’s not altogether correct to say it’s the only one between Limerick and Dublin
I thought mayfield was in cork – I wouldn’t stop there if I were you !!!!
Yeah, I questioned that last part of the article there too, what makes it more surprising is the Junction 14 ‘Plaza’ also has a Supermacs, so this wont even be Supermac’s first service facility on the M7?
@patrick the one in Birdhill will never happen its too close to limerick to work
The title is misleading, it’s a petrol station. A plaza suggests that it may be a square or an open area built in the village itself. I’m sure he will be honoured :0/
Weird.
Barak O’ Plaza?
Tasty and tempting food at ….. O’Baraks ?
BaraCk, even!!
Hang on, what makes Obama so great that we are naming a plaza after him. I wish the America loving brigade would just look around and start to realise what the American dream really is. World domination most likely, and bomb the bejaysus out of anyone that steps in there way.
The Fall of the Republic explains it all , I won’t be visiting that petrol station !
haha, ‘we’ are not naming a petrol station after him, a businessman has decided to commemorate the visit of a popular presidents visit to his ancestral village. Makes sense seeing as everything else in the town is named after Obama, if you are serious in your point, maybe you should be questioning the Irish Government having a ‘JFK50′ celebration moreso than one businessman choosing a name for his business that you apparently dont like?!
Yes – he is popular in wall st – and with the Financial Industry [ Robbery Industry ] . He should be on trial for war crimes .
As for JFK – same goes – another war criminal – and aslo a great admirerer of Adolf hitler . No wonder we are in Finacial trouble . Our apparent heroes – the Yanks are the worlds biggest Terrorists – and more corrupt than FF – The biggest gangssetrs in History . Look up JFK admires Adolf Hitler on U tube .
What a pompus statement. Where do you get world domination from? Why not speak to the Chinese raping of Africa, or the European slaughter of the Amazon, or maybe the Russian stranglehold of fuel to Eastern Europe. Hate the U.S. because it’s cool to do so. Or maybe you could see this for what it is; A business venture latching on to a FREE UN -TRADEMARKED BRAND NAME. Its a way of making money and people like you with blind, badly researched points of view do nothing but fuel the buzz.
I never criticised the idea. I admire pat Mcdonagh as a business man. He seldom puts a foot wrong. I don’t hate America and had no idea it was cool to do so. But I cannot support any of their overseas mission over the past ten years in their so called war on terror. Even the title stinks of propaganda and how best to sell all this to gullible masses. Been to the states a few times and loved it. Now just where are those weapons of mass destruction?
You might want to remember that the US has been a haven for Irish immigrants. These immigrants played a major role in the building of the railroads, canals and much of the infrastructure of many a large US city. They have been fully integrated into American society achieving prominence in ensuing generations. We American Irish have never been denigrated, with the exception of the Anglophile, Hurst newspapers during the late 1800′s, Remember that many an Englishman refer to the Irish in the UK as “our Puerto Ricans.” What a disgusting slam both at us and the Puerto Ricans. Ok, so I may be dragging the point but you have bought into, as Hurst did, the English perception of the States. Yes, the US has played the role as the world’s policeman. But tell me why the Europeans hold the coat of the States behind their backs while decrying US over-involvement?
I wish they would not call it job creation when it is job relocation. Fuel, food etc sold here will be lost by some other station or restaurant somewhere else. It may be a great development but it will not create jobs.
Were it not for the name Barack Obama being used, I doubt ‘big service station in Offaly’ would be national news.
With the exception of him being the 1st African American president I truly don’t understand the adoration of that guy. His signing of the National Defense Aithorisation Act on New Years eve 2011 alone is enough to make me sick. That’s not even going into his governments treatment of corporate whistle blowers and continuing the ridiculous cruel wars America are running on a credit card. Oliver Stone described him as a wolf in a Sherpa cloak, a very accurate description from a once great filmmaker. And here we are naming a glorified petrol station after him.
Sheep’s clothing….auto spell and bad fingers!
Liked Sherpa’s better, deeper analogy.
Good man carlin. Well said
Sherpa cloak…sounds lovely and warm , where can I get one?
The Sherpa Shop in Moneygall have them… Cant miss it, Its beside the pub/shop/bookies/b&b/barbers building near Maggie Murphys house beside the village pump, where that cat sits all day. who belongs to that foreign guy from Nepal who owns the shop.
Dump
The constriction phase?
If it sells petrol at American prices…..that would be fantastic, you could call it bin laden unleaded for all I care.
moneygall is now more sickening than ballyporeen………
maybe they should twin…
This has been mooted before, but was shelved….
Merica. We’re kind of a big deal.
Utter rubbish
will have to stop and try the O’bama burger..
Another 15 minutes for yer man Henry. He might even get another spot on the late late
For 60 jobs who gives a shit what it’s called.
True, call it what u like as long as people are being employed. 75 or so to build it too
Credit due to owners of Supermacs,€6m investment in a small town, bringing much needed jobs and yet the trolls on the journal , you can read their comments! Some obviously don’t live in the real world. Fair play to Supermacs and Moneygall!
The could call it the black sheep off the family
Black irish
It works obviously. But really will Barack Obama go as low as them?
If there were a place with his name on it in Ireland that yoke would probably be meriting of it.
Junction 14 in mayfield is some spot I doubt moneygall will b like it best of luck do and shor birdhill exit has a site for sale for petrol station 2 with planing pending I tink can’t see the sign for it cos storm blew it down few mths ago
Pity it’s no a McDonald’s. So much nicer than slobber macs !
*not
Jeasus every country in the world should nowadays invest in their own citizens to go over to state and invest in their education and all that, you never know we might have some let me think… God knows Brzezowski’s landfill area. Maybe that president will visit it too. Other countries should really learn this. Milking fat cow’s, it’s all about that.
“a range of other options”, Barack Obama has said. What other options? So many innocent people killed, so much waste so that Obama, Bush etc. could keep their Jewish paymasters happy. Not that Mr. Obama has ever had much interest in the welfare of innocent people. They don’t come more innocent than a baby just about to be born and yet: “In 1997, Obama voted in the Illinois Senate against SB 230, a bill designed to prevent partial-birth abortions. In the US Senate, Obama has consistently voted to expand embryonic stem cell research. He has voted against requiring minors who get out-of-state abortions to notify their parents. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) gives Obama a 100% score on his pro-choice voting record in the Senate for 2005, 2006, and 2007.”
This wonderful medical procedure goes as follows:
“The abortionist pulls the baby into breach position (feet first) and sequentially pulls out the baby’s legs and arms, leaving only the head inside the mother while the rest of the baby’s body is outside of the mother and even moving around. The abortionist then reaches in with a pair of scissors and cuts a hole in the back of the baby’s neck, and then sticks a suction tube into the hole. When the suction machine is turned on, the baby’s brain is sucked out, crushing the skull, at which point the now dead baby can be removed with ease.”
Of course Mr.Obama would justify this by saying the ‘welfare’ of the mother is all important. Please, please inform me how, in God’s name, the above procedure helps the mother in any way.
And then his beloved wife Michelle chips in with a letter, speaking of the partial-birth abortion ban, claims:
“The fact remains, with no provision to protect the health of the mother, this ban on a legitimate medical procedure is clearly unconstitutional and must be overturned.”
To think we welcomed these vermin into our country. I never thought a ‘first couple’ in the White House could make Bill and Hilary look good. I hope the chicken tastes good in Moneygall.
That guy standing behind Obama to the left looks very like the garda who was shot yesterday. Bit weird
This is so ridiculous it’s almost surreal. What is it that the man has done to call a plaza after him? He’s a suck up to the
bankers and private industry, like every other politician. How about naming it after someone who, without the incentives of being slapped on the cover of every magazine, has worked selflessly for their community. It’s not just this country that has it all wrong, this celebrity crap is everywhere.
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