‘This is a huge honour for Ballina’

Anton McNulty

AS soon as The White House confirmed that President Biden would be visiting Ballina as part of his official visit to Ireland, the stars and stripes were taken out of storage and placed on every building in the town.
Walking through the north Mayo capital, there was no doubt who was coming to town with the final touches being put in place to welcome home Ballina’s most famous son.

“It is a huge honour for everyone in Mayo and in Ballina we are so excited. In Ballina we see it as a hometown welcome,” Cathaoirleach of the Ballina Municipal District, Cllr Mark Duffy told The Mayo News.
“He visited in 2016 and again in a private capacity in 2017 and people have met him here and look forward to seeing him again. It is as true as that. We will embrace that welcome.
“We must ensure we enjoy it because we don’t get these opportunities as a county or a region or a country every other day. There is plenty of negative things in the world to bring you down but this should be a heart lifting experience for everyone. I hope every family and everyone enjoys the moment because it will be historic.”

300th anniversary
Ballina celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2023 and the Ballina 2023 Steering Group issued letters of invitations to visit to the President both in 2022 and 2023. Anne-Marie Flynn, Marketing Manager, Ballina 2023, said they are delighted that his visit has now been confirmed and to welcome President Biden home.
“We are so excited about President Biden’s visit and we are determined to put our best foot forward and ensure Ballina is looking its best.
“This visit to Ballina represents a homecoming for President Biden. Ballina is such a beautiful town and this is a perfect opportunity to shine a spotlight on it around the world, and hopefully many more will follow in the President’s footsteps in visiting the area after his trip. And for Ballina 2023, the President’s visit certainly marks a highlight of this really significant year of celebration for the town,” she said.
Scranton became the home of a large number of Mayo emigrants in the late nineteenth century who sought work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and on the railroads.
Ballina has been twinned with Scranton since 1990 and Cllr Duffy recently visited the town as part of the St Patrick’s Day festivities in March. He said that the cultural links between the two towns run deep and the town must build on President Biden’s visit to Ballina. Cllr Duffy added that a lot of work has gone on in the background to make the visit a possibility and this will put Ballina on the world map.
“This is something we all dreamed of. In a Mayo context, St Muredach’s Cathedral is an iconic location and is one of our centre pieces in Ballina. But now it is going to be elevated to the eyes of the world as a centre piece and people will say this is where President Biden made his speech that time. That will make it an iconic location and a tourism spot and that prospect is something you can never dream of.”