Biden left Ireland feeling he could ‘be elected president’ here after 2023 visit

Detailed summary

Former US president remembers his trip to Ireland in several passages in his upcoming memoir Promise Me, America ...

Former US president Joe Biden has said he left Ireland feeling he could be “elected president” here after his State visit in 2023.

In extracts from his upcoming memoir Promise Me, America, to be published on November 17th, Biden said the visit “restored my soul and revived my spirit”.

He wrote: “The trip had restored my soul and revived my spirit, which I’d needed. I knew I was headed home for the fight of my political life.

“I left feeling I could be elected president in Ireland. Now I was about to find out if I could be reelected president in the United States.”

Biden dropped out of the race for the White House the following year after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump. He then backed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who secured the Democratic nomination before losing to Trump in 2024.

Biden also recalled a chance meeting with Fr Frank O’Grady at Knock Shrine. Fr O’Grady, then the US army chaplain at Walter Reed Medical Centre, performed the last rites sacrament on his son Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015.

Biden also said he has good memories of his address at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina on April 14th, 2023, in front of 27,000 “wildly enthusiastic” people.

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Looking back on the G7 summit in Cornwall, England, in 2021, Biden discussed his anger with Brexit.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.