There's no business like Joe business

Locals just Biden their time ahead of visit

- MICHELLE FLEMING

EXCITED locals in Co Mayo are sprucing up streets and shopfronts ahead of the visit of US President Joe Biden this week.

Reports of Cousin Joe riding around in The Beast just days before Air Force One is due to touchdown on Irish soil almost caused a security alert.

Ballina locals did double-takes when they spotted a suited silver-haired gent riding around Biden's ancestral homestead in a shiny Cadillac yesterday.

Publican Michael Carr said: "Rumour is Biden's already arrived by Cadillac and if people want to come into Paddy Mac's and leave the price of a pint of Guinness behind the bar for him, he'll do a selfie.

Micheal is landlord of Bar Square pub, where the President enjoyed a few trad tunes from Carr's then seven-year-old son Patrick, on the banjo, on his first visit to his ancestral home in 2016. Michael added: "He's due to make a speech on a podium in Tone Street, where Biden's relative Blewitt was born but we're waiting for final details from his men in black...

The screen mounted outside Carr's pub reads: "The Kettle's On Joe, Come on Home." Biden doppelganger Antony "Bosley" Timoney, from The Quay, Ballina, said hed love to have a pint in Paddy Mac's with the real POTUS.

On whether he was worried about being deemed a security risk by Mr Biden's men in black, the batchelor said: "I'm looking very like him all right.

"They might mistake me for him. I'm a big fan of Joe. I might go for a pint with him. I'll be round next week. I would like to meet him."