Daniel McConnell: Joe Biden wears his Irishness on his sleeve

Ireland has secured a friend in the Oval Office for the next four years

The owners of this shop in Ballina, Co Mayo, were displaying their support for Joe Biden as he was being inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States of America has a particular significance — not only for Irish America, but for Ireland itself.

For five decades, this country has looked to the brutally truncated administration of John F Kennedy as a shining representative of the power of the Irish American experience. Biden’s Irish credentials may even surpass those of the iconic JFK.