A Small Irish Town Claims Victory After Biden Win
Source: CNN
(CNN) The stars and stripes have been fluttering all week on the streets of Ballina -- the town of just 10,000 in the west of Ireland where US president-elect Joe Biden's Irish ancestors hail from.
Ten of the former vice president's 16 great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland, according to the Irish for Biden campaign, with Edward Blewitt, Biden's great-great-great-grandfather, providing the Ballina connection.
On Saturday, as CNN projected Biden's White House win, Ballina residents came out to celebrate their distant kin's success. "I think Ballina has saved the world tonight, because without Ballina, there would be no Joe Biden," Smiler Mitchell, a local publican, told CNN. Balloons were tied to cars and the crowd sang "The Green and Red of Mayo," a famous ballad about the county where Ballina is situated.
One car with a cardboard cut out of Biden in the front seat had a license plate which read, "PENNSYLVANIA BIDEN #1." In the lead-up to the election, the community held a "Ridin' for Biden" event around the bridges crossing the River Moy with a carousel of cars passing the town's iconic cathedral and finishing in front of a mural of the man himself, erected in the town's main square...
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/07/europe/ancestral-homes-biden-us-election-intl/index.html
- Joe Blewitt (left), a cousin of Joe Biden, with (from left) his wife Deirdre, daughter Lauren (7), Emer Bourke, his aunt Breege Bourke & his father Brendan Blewitt as they began celebrating in anticipation of the results of the US election.
snowybirdie
(5,223 posts)My grandmother came from a nearby town Castlebar. An area that saw the worst of the famine. BTW, Biden loosly translates to Button in the old language.
appalachiablue
(41,127 posts)Temple Bar and environs on a brief business trip one summer was terrific.
cate94
(2,810 posts)Great grandparent. Hi cuz!
CBHagman
(16,984 posts)I'm still trying to find out exactly where my Scranton relatives came from, but I do know my great-great-aunt married a man from Ballycastle.
mopinko
(70,078 posts)how we are how we are cousins, but if you go far back enough, all us irish american are cousins.
drinkin to m' cousin joe to tonight.
I do not drink, but I am burning one this very night.
and $100 champagne in a tiffany flute.
Since we both have relatives from the same area, I'm claiming Joe as a cousin. God Bless America. 🇱🇷
mopinko
(70,078 posts)the average irish american has 10k cousins, so...
i have a couple hundred that i actually know.
snowybirdie
(5,223 posts)To opt for Irish citizenship and moving to the olde sod if rtump reelected. If grandparents were Irish citizens, we could claim it. Thank goodness we're staying put 😊
mopinko
(70,078 posts)entitled on both sides.
and am the gggggrandniece of michael dwyer, the chief of wicklow.
figure there is a title i'm entitled to.
👋
CountAllVotes
(20,868 posts)You've got plenty to be proud of there, the next President of the USA!
FM123
(10,053 posts)Granny M
(1,395 posts)We are rejoicing here in Ireland, and not only in Ballina!
Edited to add that the one exception is probably Doonbeg. They haz a sad. They'll get over it. I hope the place is sold and fumigated well for the next owners.
appalachiablue
(41,127 posts)The summer visit Dublin and environs I did in 1998 was great.
ananda
(28,858 posts)Slainte