For the first two days of Joe Biden’s trip to Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the US President had largely stuck to the script, avoiding making any of the gaffes he is so famous for.
And then it came.
Speaking seemingly off the cuff in a bar in a Republican border town on Wednesday night, Mr Biden, who has Irish roots, described to the audience how he felt like he had come home.
Referring to a shamrock tie he received from distant relative, former Irish rugby player Rob Kearney, the President mixed up the nickname of the New Zealand team.
He said: “See this tie I have, this shamrock tie?
“It was given to me 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.”
He meant the All Blacks, but in confusing the two names, he mistakenly referred to a division of part-time officers recruited to bolster the Royal Irish Constabulary during the War of Independence.
In 1920, the force was responsible for a massacre that saw 14 killed and 60 wounded at a Gaelic football match in Dublin.
Mr Biden smiled broadly and pivoted to the rugby clash, which took place in the US.
“But it was when you were at Soldier Field, wasn't it? Chicago,” he said, referring to the location of where he received the tie from Kearney.
“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.”
Mr 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.
The President is famously gaffe-prone and once even admitted it. 'I am a gaffe machine,” he said during the 2020 presidential campaign.
“But my God what a wonderful thing compared to a guy who can’t tell the truth.”
US President Joe Biden visits the Republic of Ireland — in pictures
In one of his latest mistakes in November he briefly mixed up the war in Ukraine with that in Iraq when talking about inflation.
“They talk about inflation … inflation is a worldwide problem right now because of a war in Iraq and the impact on oil and what Russia's doing. I mean, excuse me, the war in Ukraine,” Mr Biden said at a campaign event in Florida.
In 2010, the President forgot which of the-then Irish prime minister’s parents had died.
“His mum lived in Long Island for 10 years or so, God rest her soul,” he said.
“Although she’s, wait. Your mum’s still alive. It was your dad that passed. God bless her soul. I gotta get this straight.”
And in 2008 during the presidential election campaign, Mr Biden, who was then the vice-presidential nominee, asked Chuck Graham, who is paraplegic after a car accident he had at age 16, to stand up.
“Stand up, Chuck, let them see you,” said Mr Biden. “Oh, God love you, what am I talking about? I tell you what, you’re making everybody else stand up though, pal.
“You can tell I’m new.”
