Biden billboard in Ballina pokes fun at Mayo's All-Ireland record

James Cox

With US president Joe Biden’s highly anticipated visit to Mayo just around the corner, Epic The Irish Emigration Museum, has given Ballina locals a laugh with a billboard that highlights his Mayo roots, and gets him up to speed on his ancestral home county’s deep passion for Gaelic football.

The ad, which has also appeared online, poses the question; ‘Who would have thought Mayo would bring home a U.S. President before another All-Ireland?’.

"Much like Moneygall and Obama before him, having a long lost local in the oval office is a real point of pride for Ballina, and EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum are hoping this amusing campaign will catch the eye of the 46th U.S. President," the museum said in a statement.

In 2016, Epic’s official genealogy partner, the Irish Family History centre, was commissioned to research the Irish roots of then vice-president Biden.

Expert genealogists Fiona Fitzsimons and Helen Moss of the Irish Family History Centre presented the research to Mr Biden and his family when they visited Ireland and he was overjoyed to learn about his Irish ancestors, saying, “Stories get passed down in families, and tales can be changed as they’re passed on. What these ladies have shown me is how accurate my mother’s, uncles and grandfather’s stories were. I’ve waited my whole life for this”.

Ten of president Biden’s sixteen great-great grandparents were Irish. "Even more extraordinary, they were all Famine immigrants, arriving in the US between 1848 and 1855. They included tenant farmers and stone-masons, engineers, surveyors, and coast-guards. The President’s ancestral roots are in Mayo, Donegal, Galway and Louth."

Yvonne Murphy, director of marketing at Epic said, “The story of President Joe Biden’s return to Ireland is one which has Irish emigration and the Irish diaspora at the very heart of it. At EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum, our campaigns have always been conversation-starters and this current digital billboard in Ballina is no different. Whilst the words are playful, the sentiment is sincere, with the whole team at EPIC wishing President Joe Biden a big ‘welcome home’ and an enjoyable visit to his ancestral home.”