Joe Biden arrived in the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday for a three-day visit billed as a homecoming for a US President who prides himself on his Irish ancestry.
Mr Biden landed at Dublin Airport after a short ride in Air Force One from Belfast, where he earlier marked 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.
He was greeted in Dublin by Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who has described the trip as an “opportunity to welcome a great Irish-American President home”.
Mr Biden shook hands and greeted well-wishers as he toured County Louth.
He and his motorcade stopped off in Dundalk on Wednesday evening, and was greeted with shouts of “Welcome home Joe” and American flags.
Mr Biden had been due to fly by helicopter from Dublin to Louth, but weather conditions forced him to go by road.
Earlier, locals turned out in numbers on motorway overpasses and lined roads approaching Carlingford, to which he has traced ancestral roots, despite heavy rain.
While there, he was met by Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister, or Tanaiste, Micheal Martin, and the pair toured Carlingford Castle.
The castle offers a view of Carlingford Lough where Mr Biden’s great-great grandfather Owen Finnegan left by Newry port during the Irish famine in 1849 for a new life in the US.
As Mr Biden walked around the castle in the rain, someone shouted up to ask him what he thought of the weather, to which the President quipped: “It’s fine. It’s Ireland.”
Joe Biden visits ancestral home town in Ireland
In Dundalk, members of the public in ponchos and raincoats had been waiting to greet the US President with a sign hung above Clanbrassil Street reading: “Dundalk welcomes President Biden”.
Mr Biden went into McAteers the Food House restaurant on the same street shortly before 7.15pm, where he chatted with staff.
Former Irish rugby player Rob Kearney was among those accompanying Mr Biden as he stopped in the town.
The President confused the name of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team with a contentious War of Independence-era military force in Ireland.
Mr Biden was speaking at the Windsor Bar in Dundalk, when he referred to the shamrock tie that he was wearing.
He was thanking relative and former Irish rugby player Rob Kearney for the gift of the Irish team tie after a victory against the New Zealand rugby team at Soldier Field in Chicago in 2016.
Mr Biden mixed up the nickname of the New Zealand team, the All Blacks, with the Black and Tans.
The Black and Tans were part-time officers recruited to bolster Royal Irish Constabulary in Ireland during the War of Independence, many of whom gained a violent reputation and were reviled by the nationalists.
“See this tie I have, this shamrock tie?” he said.
“It was given to by one of these guys right here, who’s a hell of a rugby player who beat the hell out of the Black and Tans.”
Correcting himself after grimacing, Mr Biden continued: “Ah god. But, but it was when you were at Soldier Field, wasn’t it? Chicago.
“After it was all over he gave my brother, allegedly for me — but if it wasn’t I still took it. I still got the tie.
“I wore it with great pride.”
The RIC was disbanded after the partition of Ireland in 1921 and replaced by An Garda Siochana.
Concluding the speech, Mr Biden added: “Thank you all for the homecoming welcome. The bad news for all of you is we’ll be back.
“There’ll be no way to keep us out. Thank you, thank you, thank you, we love you.”
On Thursday, Mr Biden will plant a tree with Irish President Michael D Higgins before talks with Mr Varadkar, an address to the Irish Parliament and a banquet at Dublin Castle.
Mr Biden will return to his family history on Friday when he visits a County Mayo heritage centre to hear from ancestry researchers about his links to the local Blewitt family.
The final stop of his trip will be a speech at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, which also has a family link through a great-great-great-grandfather of the President, who helped to build the church’s nave.
His enthusiasm for the Republic of Ireland, compared to his brief stop in Belfast, has done nothing to quell the suspicion of Northern Irish unionists that Mr Biden supports a united Ireland.
Mr Biden, the second Catholic president after John F Kennedy, often mentions his Irish heritage in public remarks but says it is up to the people of Northern Ireland to decide their future.
White House foreign affairs committee member Amanda Sloat on Wednesday denied the charge that Mr Biden was taking sides against Britain.
“I think the track record of the President shows that he's not anti-British,” Ms Sloat said.
In his address in Belfast, Mr Biden appeared to offer some balance by nodding to English family links.
He told a story about a British military man called Capt George Biden and said his middle name, Robinette, came from French Protestants who moved to England in the 18th century.
