Biden's tears for tragic son

President meets priest who gave Beau the last rites. Devout Joe visits Marian apparition site at Knock

- JOHN HAND Chief Reporter in Knock and LOUISE BURNE

US President Joe Biden broke down in tears yesterday at Knock Shrine after he met the priest who gave his late son the last rites.

Ex-US Army chaplain Fr Frank O'Grady, who tended to tragic Beau when he was a patient at Walter Reid military hospital in Washington in 2015, spoke to Mr Biden and his other son Hunter.

Speaking afterwards, local priest Fr Richard Gibbons explained: "He laughed, he cried - it just kind of hit the man.

"You could just see how deeply it all felt and meant to him. He spoke about his family and his connection with his faith, and also about his son Beau who died.

"And it just so happened, and this was kind of spontaneous, it just so happened that we have, working at the shrine here, the chaplain who gives the last rites of the last anointing to his son in the United States.

"Just extraordinary, and I didn't even know that, I didn't know that until the president arrived.

"I told the president that because I would have lined up the priests to meet him, so he wanted to meet him straightaway." Earlier, Mr Biden declared "it's good to be back when he touched down for the final leg of his four-day visit.

Flying from Dublin Airport on the second, smaller Air Force One plane, Biden arrived at Knock Airport along with Hunter and sister Valerie.