“Being Irish – as my mother always told me – is about family, faith, and the conviction that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.”
Joe Biden has written an open letter to the people of Mayo as part of Mayo Day celebrations on Sunday (1 May).
The US President reached out to Mayo people across the world for the day, now in its eighth year of celebration.
President of the United States, Joe Biden has penned a letter with a message to Mayo people around the globe for Mayo Day 2022https://t.co/hvZINWQWLj#MayoDay #HomeToMayo pic.twitter.com/2U3VLXiS5Z
— Mayo.ie (@MayoDotIE) April 29, 2022
“Céad míle fáilte to all those celebrating Mayo Day,” Biden wrote.
“The places we’re from are the places that shape us, climb into our hearts, and never leave us.
“My great-grandfather Edward Francis Blewitt traced his roots to Ballina in County Mayo, from where his family boarded a ship 165 years ago, bound for the promise of America.
“He instilled in his family – including my mother, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden – a deep overwhelming pride in his heritage.
“It’s a pride I carry with me to this day and a pride that I know I share with the many people of County Mayo.
“On Mayo Day, we celebrate our beloved County Mayo.
“Whether it is the land of our ancestors or our newly chosen home, County Mayo offers its family much to take pride in.
“From the cliffs of Downpatrick Head in the Wild Atlantic to the view of Clew Bay atop the Croagh Patrick, the beauty of County Mayo is rivalled only by the generosity and goodness of its people – a goodness I felt when I visited a few years ago and reconnected with my Irish family.
“The heart and spirit from Castlebar to Westport to Crossmolina and all the towns in between make us who we are.
“And they are a reminder that we are all connect by where we call home.
“Being Irish – as my mother always told me – is about family, faith, and the conviction that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.
“As we celebrate Mayo Day, may we continue to take pride in all the ways that County Mayo has shaped us.”
Biden has regularly shared his pride in his Irish heritage, describing his life as “standing on the shoulders of sacrifices” his Irish family had made.
The US President also recently invited the Irish rugby team to visit the White House following their victory over the All-Blacks in November.
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