Colin Sheridan: Biden's approach to Gaza is morally bankrupt

US President Joe Biden passes a painting on himself making a speech in front of the cathedral, while visiting the North Mayo Heritage Centre, near Ballina, on April 14, 2023.

It’s not even a year since US President Joe Biden stood on the banks of the river Moy and — as a self-proclaimed Son of Ballina — muttered the mother of all crowd pleasers “Oh, one more thing: Mayo for Sam!” 

It didn’t really matter what went before, which amounted to little more than a nostalgic recalling of the journey his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt made from a north-Mayo brickyard to Scranton, Pennsylvania. The assembled mob responded with cheers commensurate with the occasion — it’s not every day a sitting American president comes to a provincial Irish town to reclaim his ancestry — but, even in the contrived atmosphere of frenzied welcome, there was an element of underwhelmed acceptance.