US President Biden breaks down in tears during a visit to Ireland

It was a personal and emotional journey for the American president: as his family has Irish roots, Joe Biden’s three-day stay in Ireland was also marked by personal meetings and a search for traces of his family history.

One moment was apparently particularly emotional for the 80-year-old: he burst into tears as he met the minister in northwestern County Mayo on Friday, who accompanied his son Beau shortly before his death. Several British media report this unanimously. Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden died of a brain tumor in 2015.

The encounter reportedly came about spontaneously, when former military chaplain Frank O’Grady moved to the sanctuary of Knock, County Mayo, for work. A visit to the pilgrimage church “Knock Shrine” was also on Biden’s program – for devout Catholics it is an important place because Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to have appeared there. That’s where the meeting took place.

“He didn’t know I worked here,” O’Grady later told Sky News. “So when I saw him he was a little excited. We last saw each other when his son was very ill eight years ago. It all came back to him.”

Biden then attended a hospice in nearby Castlebar, where he broke ground in 2017. A plaque at the entrance to the facility is dedicated to Beau Biden.

Biden was deeply affected by the death of his son, who was attorney general of Delaware. He told the Irish parliament on Thursday that he had no intention of running for president in 2020 following the death of his son.

“You know, I had no plans to run for president again in 2020. My son Beau, who had just passed away from stage 4 glioblastoma a year after coming back from Iraq… He was the attorney general of Delaware,” he said. the BBC’s Biden’s speech “Actually, he should be the one standing here to give you this speech,” he said.

The US president was accompanied on his trip to Ireland by his son Hunter and his sister Valerie.

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