During his visit to Ireland, Joe Biden surprisingly met the clergyman who accompanied his son before his death. Then the US President lost his composure.
It was a personal and also an emotional journey for the US President: Since his family has Irish roots, Joe Biden’s three-day stay in Ireland was also about personal encounters and a search for traces of his family history.
One moment was apparently particularly emotional for the 80-year-old: He broke down in tears when he met the minister who accompanied his son Beau shortly before his death in County Mayo in the north-west of the country on Friday. This is reported by several British media unanimously. Joseph Robinette “Beau” Biden died of a brain tumor in 2015.
The encounter reportedly came about spontaneously, with former military chaplain Frank O’Grady moving to the sanctuary of Knock, County Mayo, for work. A visit to the pilgrimage church “Knock Shrine” was also on the program for Biden – for devout Catholics it is an important place because Mary, the mother of Jesus, is said to have appeared there. That’s where the encounter happened.
O’Grady on Biden: “He remembered everything”
“He didn’t know I worked here,” O’Grady later told Sky News. “So when I saw him, he was a little excited. The last time we saw each other was when his son was very ill eight years ago. It all came back to him.”
Biden then visited 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 Delaware’s Attorney General. He told the Irish Parliament on Thursday that he had no intention of running for president in 2020 following the death of his son.
Biden on his son: “Actually, he should be the one standing here”
“You know, I had no plans to run for president again in 2020. My son Beau, who had just died of stage 4 glioblastoma a year after he came back from Iraq… he was the attorney general of Delaware,” the BBC quoted from Biden’s speech. “Actually, he should be the one standing here giving you this speech,” he said.
The US President was accompanied on his trip to Ireland by his son Hunter and his sister Valerie.
