It's just 10 days to Joe

Huge security operation as US chief comes home. Secret Service agents backed by gárdai and troops. Aircraft carrier will hug coast in tandem with trip

- SEAN MURPHY

PRESIDENT Joe Biden's visit to Ireland will see the US Secret Service wrap a ring of steel around his homecoming.

Biden, 80, who has ancestral family connections in Mayo and Louth, arrives in Belfast on April 11.

His Secret Service agents will be supported in protecting him by gardai and the Defence Forces.

A US aircraft carrier will patrol Irish waters when Mr Biden arrives in Belfast to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

He'll be accompanied everywhere by armed agents.

His €1.5million bulletproof limo dubbed The Beast will travel in convoy with vehicles fitted with machine guns.

The vast scope of the security operation on the island could exceed the €5million cost of his 2016 visit.

One source told the Irish Mirror: "There are 900 Secret Service agents in total and nearly a third of them will be in Ireland.

"And they have all been issued firearm permits and will be armed.

"As many as 500 gardai, up to 200 of them armed, will be on patrol.

"Several hundred soldiers will be on standby, while Ireland will also provide air cover in cooperation with the US Air Force.

"A huge American naval aircraft carrier will be positioned off the west coast and will move around the country in tandem with President Biden's itinerary.

"It may come as close as 20 miles off the Irish coast. The carrier can transport heavy military vehicles and the Beast.