That sentiment pervaded a day of ceremony here as Biden met with Irish political leaders, addressed the Irish Parliament and engaged in Irish sport (which turned out to carry more risks than his speeches, as a ball whizzed by his left shoulder and nearly struck him).
An Irish reporter asked for a selfie (which he granted). He rang a bell three times — the first, he said, “for Ireland” and the second for “all my Irish ancestors.” And the third? “For peace.”
Biden may have been born in Scranton, Pa., have spent a half-century in Washington and own two houses in Delaware, but this week, Ireland sounded like his true native land.
“It feels wonderful. Feels like home,” he said on Wednesday afternoon.
“It feels like home,” he said in the evening.
“When you’re here, you wonder why anyone would ever want to leave,” he added. “No, I mean it.”
It was a notable message for the president of the United States, whose job description includes repeatedly extolling it as the greatest country in the world, as he wondered aloud at times why his ancestors ever left.
Many here agreed. “You are one of us,” said Seán Ó Fearghaíl, speaker of the lower house of the Irish Parliament, as he introduced Biden for a speech to Parliament on Thursday.
When Biden stepped to the podium, he seemed far happier than during his addresses to Congress. He looked skyward, smiled, and said, “Well, Mom, you said it would happen.”
Then he turned to the lawmakers and said, “If you forgive the poor attempt at Irish: Tá mé sa bhaile. I’m at home. I’m at home. I only wish I could stay longer.”
In a 30-minute address, Biden wrapped Ireland into the idealistic description he usually reserves for United States, linking the two countries on subjects ranging from democracy to clean energy to the war in Ukraine.
“In this moment the world needs Ireland and the United States and our limitless imaginations,” he said.
He also weighed in on a perennial debate over the safety of one of the United States’ most popular sports — and praised one of Ireland’s. “I’d rather have my children playing rugby now for health reasons than I would have been playing football,” said Biden, a football player in high school. “Fewer people get hurt playing rugby and you have no equipment.”
Earlier, as he signed a guest book at the home of the Irish president, he reflected on his time here.
“As the Irish saying goes, your feet will bring you to where your heart is,” Biden said. “And it’s an honor to return and to come home to the home of my ancestors.”
He also has recounted on the trip how his Grandpa Finnegan would often tell him: “Remember, Joey, the best drop of blood in you is Irish.”
“Oh, you all think I’m kidding?” he said to a crowd. “I’m not kidding. I’m not kidding.”
He noted that his grandfather, despite his pride in his Irish blood, had never actually been to Ireland.
“But he raised his family with a fierce pride in our Irish ancestry — a pride that spoke to the history that binds us and the values that unite us,” Biden said. “And it’s important to remember that it’s the values that unite us.”
That was a theme for Biden during his remarks before Parliament, as he linked his family’s immigration story with the lives of those who stayed in Ireland.
“Remember the history and hope and the heartbreak my blue-eyed ancestors must have felt leaving their beloved homeland to begin a new life in America,” he said.
“I said all this not to wax poetic about bygone days, but because of the story of my family’s journey. Those who left and those who stayed is emblematic of the stories of so many Irish and American families, not just Irish American families.”
Unlike most presidential trips overseas, there were few policy objectives for this visit. He met several Irish leaders whom he had also seen in Washington on St. Patrick’s Day, and the official summaries of the meetings were nearly identical to the ones sent out last month.
But the emotional resonance seemed greater for Biden because the meetings were unfolding on Irish soil. “We warmly welcome you back to your roots,” Ó Fearghaíl said.
Biden was also given a signed book of poetry written by Seamus Heaney, whose wife was in the audience for his speech.
“I’m at the end of my career, not the beginning,” Biden said, appearing to grow reflective toward the end of his remarks to Parliament.
“The only thing I bring to this career after my aged — as you can see how old I am — is a little bit of wisdom,” he added. “I come to the job with more experience than any president in American history. Doesn’t make me better or worse. But gives me few excuses.”
