Joe Biden’s Irish connections: Who are the US president’s Mayo and Louth relations?
US President Joe Biden will arrive in Ireland on April 11. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Since he was inaugurated as US president in 2021, we’ve heard a lot about Joe Biden’s Irish roots. But with his trip to Ireland now confirmed, we’re curious to find out more about his connection to our small island — and the relatives that still live here.
As part of his trip to Ireland, Mr Biden visited Belfast on April 11, before travelling to south of the border where he will stay until April 14. As part of his visit, there will be various engagements, including in Dublin, Co Louth and Co Mayo.
The visit commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. In a statement confirming the details of the trip, the White House said Mr Biden will deliver an address "to celebrate the deep, historic ties that link our countries and people” while in Mayo and Louth.
His ties with the Emerald Isle are something the US president often addresses but, what do we know about his Irish connections and relatives?
Joe Biden’s main Irish links are with the Blewitts from Co Mayo and the Finnegans and Kearneys from Co Louth. His great-great-grandfather was Owen Finnegan from the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth who married Jean Boyle in 1839.
According to the Irish Family History Centre, the first of their four children were born in Co Louth, including James Finnegan. In the late 1840s, the family left Ireland for America. In the 1850s, records show the family had settled in Seneca, New York.
James Finnegan, who was Joe Biden’s great-grandfather, eventually married Catherine Roche, with whom he had six children, including Ambrose Finnegan. Ambrose Finnegan married Geraldine Blewitt and had a daughter, Catherine Eugenia (known as Jean), who is Joe Biden’s mother.
Among Mr Biden’s relations still residing in Co Louth is local Councillor Andrea McKevitt who is his fifth cousin. McKevitt met Joe Biden when he visited Louth in 2016 and had been hoping that the US president would stop by Co Louth during his visit this year.
In 2016 when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States, the White House contacted the Irish Family History Centre to uncover his Irish family tree. Through that, researchers discovered that the now US President and David Joseph Donald Kearney (who is the father of Irish rugby’s Kearney brothers) are fifth cousins. They are related through their Finnegan and Kearney ancestors on the Cooley Peninsula in Co Louth.
According to the research findings, the ancestors they have in common are Patrick, John Jnr and Anne Kearney who are all siblings and were born around the 1780s-90s.
“In 1813, Mary Kearney, daughter of John Kearney of Marantragh, married John Finnegan of Templetown, Co Louth. This couple is Joseph Biden’s great-great-great grandparents,” says lead researcher Fiona Fitzsimons.
On St Patrick’s Day of this year, Rob Kearney and Joe Biden finally had the chance to meet at the annual St Patrick’s Day event in Washington.
Back in 2020, Joe Biden tweeted to congratulate his cousin Rob on Ireland’s win over New Zealand.
“Congrats to you Mr President,” Kearney said in response.
According to the Irish Family History Centre, "the president’s strongest familial links in Ireland are with the Kearneys—his great-great-great grandmother’s family".
Joe Biden’s Irish connections stretch from the east to the west coast of the country. Over in Co Mayo, the Blewitts are the president’s other set of Irish relatives.
Taking it back to the 1830s, Patrick Blewitt was the president’s great-great-grandfather. The Mayo man was born in Ballina and left for America in the late 1850s and became a sailor. However, according to the Irish Family History Centre, he did return to Mayo in order to bring his siblings and parents to the States. In 1859, Patrick’s son Edward was born in New Orleans and by 1860, the family had settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Edward Blewitt went on to marry Mary Ellen Stanton with whom he had four children, including Geraldine who as we know, married Ambrose Finnegan (Joe Biden’s grandparents).
Podcaster Laurita Blewitt is third cousins with Joe Biden — unsurprisingly, the connection is through the Blewitt side of the family.
The Mayo woman, who is married to GAA pundit Joe Brolly invited Mr Biden to her wedding in 2022. However, organising security would have been quite the ordeal so the president had to decline. Laurita and her brother Joe have met the president on several times including during his 2016 visit as vice president and when he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in 2017.
During the 2020 US presidential election, the Blewitts showed their support for Joe Biden from their home county of Mayo.
The Us president arrived in Ireland on April 11 and will stop off in both Co Mayo and Co Louth during his trip, which we’re sure will lead to plenty of Blewitt/Finnegan/Kearney reunions.
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