'There were gaffes': How the US and British media reacted to Joe Biden's Ireland trip 

While the visit was mostly derided in the British media for his love-in with Irish politicians and members of the public, Biden’s visit 'home' was seen as a victory in the US

Joe Biden speaking to the crowd gathered outside St Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina, Co. Mayo on Friday. Picture: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The visit of US president Joe Biden to the land of his forefathers was either a triumph or an embarrassment, according to widely differing views in sections of the foreign media.

While the son of immigrants from Louth and Mayo was mostly derided in the British media for his love-in with Irish politicians and members of the public, Biden’s visit “home” was seen as a victory in the US.

The Washington Post was eager to point out that the enthusiastic and rapturous welcome for the Delaware man was much more than what he could expect back in the US, where his approval rating is “near the lowest point of his presidency”.

It declared of the welcome awaiting him in Mayo: “Admirers packed the streets for President Joe Biden on his last day in Ireland, some travelling for hours just to catch a glimpse. Pictures of his smiling face were plastered on drums and shop windows. No wonder Biden keeps joking about sticking around.”

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech at St Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina, on the last day of his visit to the island of Ireland. 

The focus of a piece in the New York Post was on the snub by one of Ireland’s “First Dogs”, President Michael D Higgins’s pet, Misneach, who refused to interact with Mr Biden.

In the Boston Globe, the visit to Dublin was described as a mix of diplomacy and a whirlwind countryside tour of his ancestry.

It highlighted that “10 of his 16 great-great-grandparents were from the Emerald Isle”.

The strong connection he appears to feel with Ireland was also lauded in the Wall Street Journal, with one article stating that the “sentiment was mutual” when president Biden spoke about feeling like he was coming home. It declared:

He was welcomed as the ultimate local boy made good. Crowds lined the streets in County Louth — where he traces one branch of his ancestors — and in Dublin. Distant cousins cheered him in a pub. At one stop, a pipe band played an original song called ‘A Biden Return’. The widow of a favorite poet attended his address to parliament.

Its headline noted that his Irish welcome was a “respite from tensions at home”.

Across the Irish Sea, The Guardian hailed the visit as a “success”, saying: “He was late for engagements and he rambled. There were gaffes. He confused the All Blacks with the Black and Tans. He recast Tánaiste Micheál Martin, a Corkman, as a proud son of Louth. But the trip was a success.”

People wait for US president Joe Biden before his speech at St Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina.

However, other publications were less generous in their take on the visit.

In the Daily Telegraph, a column by Nile Gardener, a former aide to Margaret Thatcher, berated Mr Biden for thinking “nothing of lecturing the [British] government on Northern Ireland policy, and has shown contempt for the special relationship [between Britain and the US]”.

The column also termed as “insulting” Mr Biden’s decision to “prioritise Ireland over the UK on his visit to mark the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement”.

In The Times, a relative of Mr Biden in Surrey was located for a piece on Friday to insist that the US president is just as English as he is Irish.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail’s coverage led with criticism of the visit by former US vice president Mike Pence.