Joe Biden (left) with Tanaist Michael Martin at Carlingford Castle, Co. Louth. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA
Joe Biden made a rare confession of his English roots on Wednesday in an apparent attempt to show that he has not been writing about his ties to the UK.
Speaking at the University of Ulster on his Belfast study tour before embarking on a three-day trip south of the border to research his Irish heritage, the President joked that British friends had told him he was actually English. p>
Mr Biden said that as Vice President he lived next door to the British Ambassador, whom he did not name. He said that during the ambassador's last trip before returning to Washington to finish his term, he brought a gift from the UK and assumed that the president was an Englishman.
“He brought a book with a photo of a somewhat obese British captain in his cabin, and a bulldog was sitting next to him,” Biden said.
“His name was Captain George Biden, and he used to always make fun of me and say, what do you know that Biden is English, you are talking about Irish, Biden is English. He told me that he had returned and received the Lord Admiralty's check, and my great-great-grandfather wrote the rules of mutiny for the British Navy. I said that at least this part is consistent.
Mr Biden also said he learned that his middle name was linked to the UK and Nottingham in the Midlands.
«But he always made fun of me when I talked about the Irish, he said, 'You're English, just remember it.» Then I learned the name Robinette — my middle name is Robinette — I thought it was French all these years. They must have been Huguenots because they got to Britain in the 1700s somewhere along the way, and they're all from Nottingham, so I don't know what the hell is going on here.»
Mr Biden with Sir Geoffrey Donaldson, leader of the DUP, at the University of Ulster in Belfast. Photo: White House/Pennsylvania. his Irish relatives.
His third paternal great-grandfather, William Biden, was born in England in 1789 and emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Maryland until his death in 1849.
According to historian Eddie Greenfield, he was born in Sussex and was baptized at St John the Baptist, Westbourne on March 8, 1789. William was the second child and son of James Biden of Pagham, who was born in November 1767, and Ann Silverlock, born in March 1766, married on May 16, 1785.
Mr. Greenfield said that the connection from Westbourne could be traced «through Maryland and through dominion to Joe.» He said he thought his study was «as close to 100% as you can get without DNA confirmation.»
Megan Smoleniak, an American genealogist, also linked the president to William Biden after she found documents linking him and other members of his family to Westbourne.
William, a bricklayer, died at age 60 and was buried in Loudon. Park Cemetery in Baltimore, a key city on the Biden family tree.
William Biden married Mary Elkins and had a son, Joseph J. Biden, who was a descendant of President George F. Biden's great-grandfather. His grandfather and father were also named Joseph, and the president was born in 1942 in Pennsylvania.
Never traveled to Sussex
Mr Biden has visited the UK six times as President, but has never been to Sussex. It is unclear if he was even aware of his ties to the county prior to the 2020 presidential campaign, when historians began researching his family tree.
However, he has been aware of potential English roots for some time after being previously erroneously linked to another Cambridgeshire-based William Biden. Mr. Biden once said that «a gentleman named Biden» wrote to him from Mumbai that they had a common relative who was «great, great, great, something like that.» It was later determined that William Biden died in Myanmar, formerly Burma, in 1843.
Ten of Mr. Biden's 16 great-great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents came from Ireland, and the visit is of personal significance to the President, who remembered as his grandfather told him: «Joe, remember, the best drop of blood in you is Irish.»
On Friday, the president will travel to County Mayo, where he has family roots.
The Biden Family Tree
He spoke of how touched he was as he walked the streets of Ballina, where his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt lived before emigrating to America.
He will tour the Sanctuary of Our Lady Knock and will visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogy Center's Family History Research Unit.
He will also give a talk at St. Muredach's Cathedral. This, too, could be a painful moment for Biden, whose friends reaffirm the strength of his Irish Catholic identity.
«BBC? I'm Irish.”
Mr. Biden often emphasizes his Irish roots. In 2021, he said that his great-grandfather, who fled famine-ravaged Ireland for the United States, left because of what the «British» were doing.
A year earlier, after his election, he answered the BBC journalist -si, asking him a question with a joke: “BBC? I'm Irish.»
Mr. Biden's light-hearted comments mark a change from previous remarks when, in reference to his last name, he said that «my grandfather and my mother were never crazy about her Englishwoman.»
The president may not have plans to visit Westbourne anytime soon, but 2,000 villagers are ready to welcome his cavalcade.
«I don't see why he wouldn't be welcomed»— Richard This was stated by the chairman of the parish council Hitchcock. «I really don't see why anyone would object to him coming when he's not Donald Trump.
«I don't think anyone would object to Mr. Biden coming to Westbourne.»
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