Dundalk Democrat is in the Windsor as Biden makes speech

On Wednesday the Dundalk Democrat was one of a select few Irish media outlets to be granted access to President Biden’s address in the Windsor Bar and Restaurant.

Selected media were escorted by plain clothes gardai through the barriers and with a double knock ushered in through a side door of the pub where they were met by a group of stern looking secret service agents.

Once inside bags were placed in a pile for security and their sniffer dogs to rifle through while journalists were given the once over by handheld metal detectors.

When it was determined that there was no threat posed to US national security the press pack were again led to a small cordoned off section where television cameras for RTE and Fox News were already set up and ready to capture the speech.

Instrumentals of famous Irish songs rang throughout the pub from a trad group who played off to the side as distant relatives and dignitaries took their seats in front of the presidential podium which was set against a backdrop of a tricolour, star spangled banner and an old fashioned ‘A Guinness a day sign.’

There was however, no Guinesses in sight in the hours before the address. Under strict instructions from the secret service the Windsor became, as the famous song goes, ‘A pub with no beer.’

Twenty minutes before the president’s arrival the White House press pool flooded into the cordoned off media zone which was now threatening to spill over such was the number of bodies now squeezed in, leading to a jostling of shoulders and elbows usually reserved for junior B games.

The expectant atmosphere grew as the crowd were given the two minute warning that the president was on his way.

Fifteen minutes later Tanaiste Micheál Martin shuffled in, almost apologetically, aware that for today at least he wasn’t the main attraction; soon followed by a smiling President Biden who made his way over to one of the children sitting at the side and whispered something.

Mr Martin spoke first as the president sat down, focusing his remarks on the value of peace to the border town as he introduced Mr Biden.

He said that the value of the Good Friday Agreement was “so tangible and real here in this location”.

“It is a shared space, a place that links rather than divides. Peace is not an abstraction here,” he said.

“As we build on the ambition of the Good Friday Agreement to sustain a dynamic and prosperous peace, the US will remain an essential and fundamental partner.”

He finished: “Welcome home, Mr President.”

“Coming here feels like coming home” is how the president described his visit as he took to the podium addressing a gathered crowd of distant relatives including local councillor Andrea McKevitt, John Own Finnegan and rugby star Rob Kearney.

“I said last time I was here, in a sense I know why my ancestors [left] during the famine but you know, when you’re here you’d wonder why anybody would want to leave, I mean it.”

He continued:

“I wish my mom Catherine Eugenia Finnegan were here today. She’d be so damn proud, Louth held such a special place in her heart.

“Every time I’ve come, the welcome from the people in the streets has been so gracious.”

“I’m so proud to be here. So proud to be in Louth,” he proclaimed.

The President’s speech drew on anecdotes from his youth when his grandparents would impress upon him his Irish heritage and his own family’s emigration for Louth over 170 years before.

He told how his grandfather had never been to Ireland, but “he raised his family with a fierce pride in our Irish ancestry.”

He further told of his pride when he found out his second granddaughter was to be given the name Finnegan.

However, his message was also one of hope for the future:

“I’ve often said the Irish are the only people who are nostalgic about the future. In my experience, hope is what beats in the heart of all people, particularly the heart of the Irish.

“Every action is about hope that we can make things better, hope to build both our nations that has been passed down generation to generation by our families. And it’s hope that continues to this day.”

He summarised the message of his speech by saying: “45 years ago Pope John Paul spoke down the road, quoting St Patrick the pope said, and I quote ‘I have kept the faith, that has been the ambition of the Irish down the centuries.’

“I think that’s who we are. We keep the faith, and I’m not talking about religion per se, I’m talking about keeping the faith in who we are and what we believe.

“So my message to you today is quite simple. We have to continue to keep the faith.”

The president’s media handlers, in hindsight, probably wished he had stopped there as apart from a minor gaffe when he called the Tanaiste a “proud Louth man” the speech had otherwise gone smoothly.

It was his closing comments about former rugby player Rob Kearney (seated to his left) beating “the hell out of the Black and Tans,” that would prove to be the headline grabber and the reason many would remember the speech.

The President had hardly finished thanking those present when the media were unceremoniously whisked out the door, a stray question from the fox journalist regarding leaked Pentagon documents falling on deaf ears amid the clamour.