Biden tears at ancestral grave

THIS is the moment when a tearful President Joe Biden first visited his ancestors' family grave.

-  JOHN KIERANS

Accompanied by the local parish priest Fr Malachy Conlon, he offered a prayer outside the ruins of the 15th century church in Kilwirra Cemetery, Cooley, Co Louth.

Many of his relations, the Finnegan family, dating to before and after the Potato Famine, are laid to rest there in the family plot.

The Biden story on his mother's side is traced to two families, the Finnegans from Louth and the Bewitts from Ballina in Co Mayo.

But it was his great, great grandfather Owen Finnegan and his wife Jean who left the family homestead in Whitestown, Co Louth, and went to America.

The ruins of their original home can still be seen today.