Vice President Joe Biden will visit Ireland this year, he told Irish leader Enda Kenny at a St.Patrick’s week breakfast yesterday at the vice presidential residence.
The breakfast was delayed after Biden missed the St. Patrick’s Day White House bash as he was attending the inaugural mass for Pope Francis I.
The news of the Irish visit came as Biden travels to New York today to be inaugurated into the Irish America Hall of Fame hosted by our sister publication Irish America magazine.
Prime Minister Enda Kenny welcomed the news of the visit by the vice president who has Louth and Mayo roots
"I am very glad to hear you say you are coming to Ireland this year. Just to say that publicly, so those of you down there in the fourth estate know: Biden is on his way."
Biden’s great grandfather on his mother’s side, James Finnegan, came from Cooley, County Louth and was a blind musician. He also has roots in Co. Mayo.
Kenny stated the VP was looking forward to his Irish trip.
"The vice president will come to Ireland this year and we hope that we can have a little round on the golf course if we get an opportunity," he said.
Biden and Kenny also discussed immigration reform and the prospects for a comprehensive bill later this year.
Biden joked that a check of his genealogy discovered he is five-eighths Irish and said his mother was told not to hold it against his father for being English.
Biden will be inaugurated into the Hall of Fame alongside former Congressman Bruce Morrison, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, businessman Bob Devlin and art collector and philanthropist Brian Burns and American Ireland Fund’s new chairman-elect John FitzPatrick in New York today.
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