With US president Joe Biden’s highly anticipated visit to Mayo just around the corner, Epic The Irish Emigration Museum, has given Ballina locals a laugh with a billboard highlights his Mayo roots, and gets him up to speed on his ancestral home county’s deep passion for Gaelic football.
The ad, which has also appeared online, poses the question; ‘Who would have thought Mayo would bring home a U.S. President before another All-Ireland?’. "Much like Moneygall and Obama before him, having a long lost local in the oval office is a real point of pride for Ballina, and EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum are hoping this amusing campaign will catch the eye of the 46th U.S.
President," the museum said in a statement. In 2016, Epic’s official genealogy partner, the Irish Family History centre, was commissioned to research the Irish roots of then vice-president Biden.
Expert genealogists Fiona Fitzsimons and Helen Moss of the Irish Family History Centre presented the research to Mr Biden and his family when they visited Ireland and he was overjoyed to learn about his Irish ancestors, saying, “Stories get passed down in families, and tales can be changed as they’re passed on.