US President Joe Biden’s plane has landed at Knock Airport as it returns to its roots in County Mayo.
Mr. Biden has ties to the county through his great-grandfather, Edward Blewett.
The president is due to address a homecoming ceremony outside St Meredith’s Cathedral in Ballina on Friday night.
A crowd of around 20,000 people is expected to line the streets of the town for the event.
It is believed that the President will be presented with a brick from a chimney which is the last surviving piece of his ancestral home in the town.
‘Welcome home’
Ballina Mayor Mark Duffy said people had been eagerly awaiting the president’s arrival.
“It’s a homecoming, a welcoming home where his family and friends are,” he told JEE News.
“I hope it’s respected because they’re real relationships, they’re sincere connections, it’s not engineered, it’s not fabricated.
“It makes sense for the president, it makes sense for the people here in the city.”
Mags Downey-Martin of the Ballina Chamber of Commerce said it was “an epic, incredible out of this world experience for Ballina.”
“I mean you can’t quantify it. You can’t say what it means to us,” he said.
“On the one hand, it’s a very memorable day — we’re welcoming back President Joe Biden. He was here in 2016 as VP [Vice President], he did a nice tour of town, great fun. picked up and all the natives came to meet him and shake his hand.
“It’s a very different experience this time, but just as important and symbolic that he has decided to come back to Ballina, to come back to his home in County Mayo.”
A star-studded line-up of Irish musicians, including The Academics, The Chieftains and The Coronas, are set to entertain crowds at St Meridach’s Cathedral on Friday.
Corona frontman Danny O’Reilly told JEE News that the band were “buzzing” to perform for another US president, having previously performed for Barack Obama during their 2011 tour. have played for
“We were literally just asked to join earlier this week and it was all done, a lot of security, a lot of planning,” he said.
“It’s a weird gig but it’s exciting… the whole town is buzzing for it, it’s definitely an event we won’t forget.
“It’s one of those bucket list things that you’re happy to be involved in,” he added.
Mr O’Reilly added that he understood the Mayo GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) team and former Irish President Mary Robinson would also be on stage.
