How Irish is Joe Biden? US President traces his roots back to County Louth and ... trends now

Joe Biden has been hailed as 'unmistakably a son of Ireland' but the US President's boasting of his Irish heritage has often been accompanied by 'anti-British' slights.

The 80-year-old was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania yet traces his roots back to County Louth and County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland.

Mr Biden will visit both on his tour of the country this week, which will follow his swift trip to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

His connections to Ireland come mainly on his mother's side with his great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt having grown up in Ballina, Co. Mayo.

Blewitt emigrated to Scranton after the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.

Another of the US President's great-great-grandfathers, Owen Finnegan, was a shoemaker from Co. Louth who emigrated to America in 1849.

His family, including Mr Biden's great-grandfather James Finnegan, followed him in 1850.

The US President has previously revealed how his English father, Joseph Biden Snr., had the 'saving grace' of also having Irish heritage.

Mr Biden said last year: 'He had the saving grace, on his mother's side, of having a Hanafee from Galway.

'That's the only thing that saved him. And you all think I'm kidding. I'm not.'

It was not the first time that Mr Biden has hinted at a familial embarrassment at his father's English heritage.

He previously recalled his aunt telling him when he was young: 'Your father's not a bad man. He's just English.'

Mr Biden has, in the past, also spoken of a discomfort at Biden being an English surname and revealed 'my grandfather and my mother were never crazy about it being English'.

Last year, it emerged that Mr Biden had once revealed his mother Jean so disliked England

read more from dailymail.....