Joe Biden's Irish supporters are celebrating the victory of their 'favorite uncle' as he faces Boris Johnson over Brexit
- Joe Biden is likely to make Ireland his first state visit as US president, a source on his campaign told Business Insider.
- The move, if confirmed, would be a coup for the Irish government and could heap more pressure on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to shift policy on Brexit.
- In County Louth and County Mayo, where many of Biden's ancestors were from, residents have taken to the streets to celebrate his victory over President Donald Trump.
- "It's very much a case of local Joe," said Paul Allen, a spokesman for the Irish for Biden campaign.
- Irish senators and campaigners say they expect Biden's ties to the country mean he will face down Johnson over his Brexit plans for Northern Ireland.
- "For the first time since JFK, we'll have someone who is a real Irish American in the White House," Irish Sen. Erin McGreehan told Insider.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to make Ireland his first foreign state visit, a source in his campaign told Business Insider, in what supporters in his ancestral home believe would be a watershed moment in their relationship with the United States.
The move, if confirmed, would be a coup for Micheál Martin's government and would add to growing pressure on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to change course on Brexit after a difficult beginning to his relationship with the US president-elect.
Biden's recent interventions in the Brexit negotiations have been greeted favorably in Ireland and with suspicion in the UK government, where Johnson is being urged to soften his position on the Northern Ireland border to strike a trade deal with the European Union.
If Johnson does bend, then Biden's interventions would undoubtedly be credited as a major factor and a further sign of the increased importance of Ireland as an ally for the US.
Biden's interest in the matter is rooted in a deeply felt affinity with his ancestral homeland.
Read more: Joe Biden's election victory could soon spell trouble for Britain's 'mini-Trump' Boris Johnson
When he was a small child struggling to overcome his stutter, he spent hours in front of the mirror reciting the poetry of Yeats. He's a distant cousin of Rob Kearney, the Irish rugby player, who has visited the White House. Biden spoke with Irish cousins over the phone in the months leading up to the US Election Day and recited poetry by another giant of Irish literature, Seamus Heaney, in a widely shared election campaign video.
Earlier this year, he jokingly told the BBC "I'm Irish" when asked for an interview.
Biden's Irish supporters are celebrating victory
"It's very much a case of local Joe," Paul Allen, a spokesman of the Irish for Biden campaign, told Business Insider last week. "He's like your favorite uncle — that's the sort of character he is."
He added: "Everybody in these areas is absolutely ecstatic that one of their own is going to be president. They were really rooting for their local hero. There were sleepless nights, and it's all that people were talking about."
Claire Tighe, the vice chair of the UK Labour Party's Irish Society, told Business Insider: "For a descendant of those Irish migrants to become president of the United States is a phenomenal story, and it has really moved something in people.
"There is a massive pride that runs really deep. It's really quite hard to describe."
Tighe is from County Mayo in western Ireland, where a handful of Biden's Irish ancestors who emigrated to the US in the 19th century were also born. The others originated from the eastern side of the country, in County Louth.
Residents of County Mayo and County Louth have likened Biden's victory to the success of Ireland's beloved title-winning boxer Barry McGuigan. In County Mayo there's talk of a "Biden bounce" helping its Gaelic football team win silverware after decades of disappointment. Mayo has played in nine finals over the past 70 years, losing them all. Biden reportedly brought up Mayo's recent win over Roscommon in his call with Martin last week.
'I would assume that the very first overseas visit will be Ireland'
"Biden is acutely aware of his Irish ancestry," said Brian O'Dwyer, a cochair of the official Irish American Democrats lobby group who is also a member of Biden's finance committee. "More than that he is extremely proud of his Irish ancestry and identifies himself as a full-scale Irish American. He never leaves an opportunity to identify as Irish."
Erin McGreehan, the senator of the Fianna Fáil party from County Louth, told Business Insider: "It seems that for very much for his entire life has grabbed on to his Irish identity. That has been a very important part of his whole life story, his grounding in whatever he has been doing every step of the way."
Irish ministers have already contacted the Biden team to invite him to Ireland once travel restrictions put in place to combat the coronavirus are lifted. He told people when he visited Ireland in 2016 that he would return within the first year of his term as president, should he be elected. Arrangements are being made for Simon Coveney, the minister for foreign affairs, to extend a formal invitation.
A well-placed figure on the Biden campaign told Business Insider that they expected Ireland to be his first state visit.
"I would assume that the very first overseas visit will be Ireland," the person said. "I can't think of any other place that he would rather go, given the last time he was vice president, the kind of adulation, rock-star status that he has in Ireland."
A leader in the Irish American community is at the heart of Biden's successful campaign. John McCarthy, Biden's deputy national political director, was previously chief of staff to US Rep. Brendan Boyle, whose father emigrated to the US from Ireland in the 1970s and has been involved in Irish philanthropic organizations for several years.
Biden's victory heaps pressure on Johnson over Brexit
There is a shared belief among Irish politicians and campaigners that Biden's victory will put greater pressure from the White House on Johnson to change tack on Brexit — namely, his refusal to ditch a controversial plan to disapply parts of the UK and EU's withdrawal agreement pertaining to Northern Ireland.
His government has acknowledged that going ahead with its plan would break international law, and it faces staunch opposition at home and abroad.
Johnson is sticking with the plan, despite the House of Lords last week voting it down by a large majority.
Biden brought up the issue of Northern Ireland twice in his recent phone call with Johnson, the Financial Times reported. A readout of the call from the Biden transition team said he "reaffirmed his support for the Good Friday Agreement." In September, he made waves in Britain with a tweet warning that a post-Brexit free-trade deal between the UK and US was "contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border."
Biden's tweet about Brexit in September was "in many ways a dose of reality," said Frank Costello, a leading figure in Irish America who served as chief of staff to Rep. Joseph P Kennedy II in the 1990s.
"Joe's interest in Ireland is deep and legitimate," he said. "It's not just 'a great granny came from Ireland.'"
Irish Sen. John McGahon of the Fine Gael party agreed, telling Business Insider that "the line Boris Johnson has been taking for the last six months went down fine with Donald Trump" but that "there's a new president in the White House who has a totally different view on how the United Kingdom government has been handling their affairs."
In the meantime, the celebrations in Ireland are set to continue until Biden's inauguration in January.
"For the first time since JFK," McGahon said, "we'll have someone who is a real Irish American in the White House."
Allen said the Irish for Biden campaign was in discussions with the president-elect's team about sending an eight-person, pump-and-drum band from the County Louth town of Carlingford to Washington for the occasion.
"It'll be a little piece of home that he will enjoy," he told Business Insider.