Joe Biden breaks down in tears after meeting priest who gave son Beau the last rites

US president Joe Biden visiting Knock Shrine and Basilica in Mayo with Fr. Richard Gibbons, on the last day of his visit to the island of Ireland. Picture: Andrew Downes/Julien Behal Photography

US president Joe Biden broke down in tears on the final day of his Ireland tour after an emotional unplanned meeting with a priest who gave the last rites to his son.

The Parish priest of Knock, Fr Richard Gibbons, told the BBC the chaplain who performed the last rites sacrament on Mr Biden’s son, Beau, now works at the Knock shrine in Co Mayo where the president paid a visit on Friday.

Fr Frank O’Grady performed the ceremony for Beau Biden before he died of brain cancer in 2015.

After Mr Biden’s tour of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock – a Catholic pilgrimage site – Fr Gibbons told the broadcaster: “He spoke about his family and his connection with his faith, and also about his son Beau who died.

“And it just so happened, and this was kind of spontaneous, it just so happened that we have, working at the shrine here, the chaplain who gives the last rites of the last anointing to his son in the United States.

Just extraordinary, and I didn’t even know that, I didn’t know that until the president arrived."

Fr Gibbons said Mr Biden wanted to meet Fr O’Grady “straight away” – describing it as an emotional moment for the president.

He told the BBC: “He laughed, he cried, it just kind of hit the man, you could just see how deeply it all felt and meant to him.

“It was an extraordinary afternoon. I won’t forget it, I can tell you that it was quite something else.”

Speaking about his unscheduled meeting with Mr Biden, Fr O’Grady told RTÉ: “We had a nice chat for about 10 minutes. He was delighted to see me and I was delighted to see him.

“He gave me a big hug, it was like a reunion.

“He told me he appreciated everything that was done.”

Fr O’Grady said he had not seen Mr Biden since the death of his son Beau eight years ago.

He told RTÉ: “I was very surprised when I got a phone call to say the president wanted to see me.

“It was a delightful 10 minutes with him. I hadn’t seen him really in eight years since Beau died. His son Hunter was there too, so we had a real reunion.

He certainly misses his son. He has been grieving a lot, but I think the grief is kind of going down a bit. We talked a little bit about how grief can take several years.” 

Fr O’Grady added: “He certainly was very impressed with Knock.

“As a man of great faith, it really hit home very hard to him about his son’s passing when he comes to Knock, because we talk about mysteries of life and death in a place like Knock, all the time here.

“He is a man of great faith, and it is just a coincidence that I happened to meet him.”

After leaving Knock, Mr Biden travelled to Castlebar where he made a private visit to the Mayo Roscommon Hospice.

The president had a longstanding pledge to revisit the facility, having turned the sod on the development in 2017.

At the time he described the ceremony as “a deeply moving experience”.

A plaque at the entrance to the hospice is dedicated to Beau Biden’s memory.

At the site, Mr Biden, along with his son Hunter and sister Valerie, met with distant cousin Laurita Blewitt.

And in a video message to the hospice on its official opening of the €6.3m palliative centre two years ago, Mr Biden congratulated its founders.

Beau Biden, who followed his father into politics died of brain cancer less than two years after he was diagnosed.

“I know this special place will bring comfort to the proud people of Co Mayo and Roscommon, and for me, it’ll always have a special place in my heart,” he said.

He thanked the hospice promoters for honouring his son.

“The fact that you have etched Beau’s name in memory into the tapestry of this hospice is something my family and I, and his children in particular, will never, ever forget”.

Beau Biden, who followed his father into politics died of brain cancer less than two years after he was diagnosed.

He served two terms as Delaware attorney general before declaring a run for governor, and many saw in him the same aspirations that brought his father to the vice presidency after several unsuccessful presidential bids.

Beau served a year-long deployment in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star.

But in 2010, at age 41, he suffered a stroke, then was diagnosed with brain cancer three years later.