Plumber Joe Blewitt of Ballina in County Mayo, Ireland, has good reason to be in high spirits – his cousin his just been elected the 46th president of the United States.
The Blewitt clan are among several Irish families who claim kinship with the next US president. Biden’s great, great, great grandfather – Edward Blewitt – left Ballina for America during the Irish famine, according to the BBC.
Biden met his relatives in County Mayo in 2016.
Said Joe Blewitt this week: ‘Joe Biden told me: “I’ll be back as president.” Please God he will.’
He said he and his sister, Laurita, had met Biden several times and had already visited him in the White House in his role as vice-president under Barack Obama.
The BBC notes that, though Biden’s ancestors left Ireland 170 years ago, the president-elect is fiercely proud of Irish roots.
In 2016, he said: ‘Being Irish, without fear of contradiction, has shaped my entire life.’