Flags go up ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Co. Mayo next week and locals hope the trip leaves a lasting legacy for this corner of Ireland.
They may be getting more than they bargained for… if we may deduce the 1979 papal visit.
“We call them the Pope’s children. Nine months later, my brother Patrick John was born,” said Mags Downey, director of the Ballina Chamber of Commerce.
“They’re all called John Paul.
“Now they could be Joe’s kids in nine, ten months. They will all be named Joseph.”
Volunteers decorate Ballina in the west of Ireland ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit next week. Biden’s ancestors left town in 1851 and now the town is ready to welcome him back
Ireland experienced a baby boom nine months after Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1979. He addressed about 450,000 people at Knock, a holy shrine about 45 minutes from Ballina
Pope John Paul II visited Ireland in 1979. It coincided with a rise in births across the country, peaking exactly nine months after the pope’s visit.
Biden will arrive in Northern Ireland on Tuesday as part of a visit to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which contributed to years of political, sectarian violence known as the Troubles.
He then travels south to Dublin. On Friday he will visit Ballina, from where his great-great-grandfather emigrated in 1851.
He will give a speech outside the city’s cathedral, at the largest public event of the trip.
Downey said some 20,000 are expected to appear. It’s not quite the nearly half a million people who came to see John Paul II at the holy shrine down the road in Knock, but Ballina is ready to put on a big show.
The city is preparing a major clean-up for the visit, during which the road markings will be repainted.
Shops in the narrow shopping streets have hung American flags above their doorways.
And special “Welcome Joe Biden” signs have appeared in their windows.
Mags Downey, chief executive of the Ballina Chamber of Commerce, has led volunteers to brighten up the city for Joe Biden’s visit this Friday
JP Hughes sells Biden memorabilia at his gift shop in Ballina, Co. mayo
A real estate agent has an ad that might interest Biden, brazenly advertising the White House as a “first home ownership.” There is no asking price
Biden will spend four days in Ireland next week. He lands in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday before departing for Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, the next day
The visit happens to coincide with the 300th anniversary of Ballina being formally established in a city.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Downey, who said it would be an opportunity to honor the past, celebrate the present and build a future, using the VIP visit.
“Just like when the Pope came to visit, this will be one of those historic moments that instills civic pride in the community by helping maybe 200 volunteers, that the city is sparkling and shiny and that Ballina represents Mayo and Ballina on a global level. and that’s the legacy,’ she said.
Ties with the president run deep.
Edward Blewitt, his great-great-grandfather, lived in the town before moving to the US. And so many people from this part of the world ended up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, that the two cities are twinned, a decision made long before ties to Biden were widely known.
The town of Ballina has been twinned with Biden, Pennsylvania since 1990. Although it is Biden’s hometown, that was not the reason for the fraternization.
On Friday, workmen removed lights from a pedestrian crossing outside the city’s cathedral. A podium is being built on this spot on which Biden can address about 20,000 people
Everyone gets in the mood for the big visit next week
Biden will come to Ballina, the ancestral home of the Blewitt side of his family, this Friday. The highlight will be a speech on Irish-American relations delivered by the cathedral
Today, Biden’s image is everywhere.
A real estate agent brazenly has a picture of the White House in the windshield, listing it as “first residence.”
A coffee shop is renamed ‘Biden Coffee Corner’.
And bar owner Michael Carr has built a small stage on Garden Street, just down the street from Blewitt’s old house, for the president to deliver a speech.
This will be Biden’s third visit. He took first in 2016 as vice president, before returning a year later for a private visit, a trip that included a groundbreaking ceremony at a new hospice.
This time, much of his itinerary is hidden. The result is a guessing game where the locals try to guess if he will come back to the hospice, visit the shrine in Knock, or if he will have time to see the remains of the old Blewitt house.
The result is just extra excitement.
“Imagine if he was walking down the street we walk on here and the people who came before him were from a small town in the west of Ireland, and he’s the world’s first president,” jeweler Joseph Winters said. while he helped put up flags.
“And he’s done a fantastic job with America and with the world.”