Ballina ready to welcome Biden

REPEAT VISIT? Joe Biden is pictured with locals on his last visit to Ballina when he was Vice President back in 2016. Pic: Maxwells


Ballina residents are eagerly awaiting official confirmation that US President Joe Biden will visit his ancestral hometown during his planned trip to Ireland. The town is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year with a huge programme of cultural events planned. A formal invitation has already been extended to the President and First Lady Dr Jill Biden to visit Ballina, and a special letter of invitation was expected to be issued to Mr Biden in person on St Patrick’s Day by An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, as part of his official invitation to the President to visit Ireland next month.  
Chair of Ballina 2023 Steering Group, Cllr Jarlath Munnelly said: “This is a momentous year for Ballina and we are proud to showcase Ballina with our exciting events programme. To have President Biden return to the town join the celebrations would make it incredibly special.
“We are poised and prepared to host the President here in North Mayo with a very special public event as part of Ballina 2023.”
Ballina is also the hometown of former President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. Susan Heffernan, Project Manager, The Mary Robinson Centre said: “Ballina is in the unique position of being a town of two Presidents, and we are very fortunate that there’s a long and enduring friendship between former President Mary Robinson and US President Joe Biden. We recognise that it is an unmissable opportunity to have our Presidents – both proud Mayo people – here in Ballina together, and very much look forward to welcoming them.”

MORE For more information on the Ballina 2023 programme of events, visit www.ballina2023.ie.