Joe Biden’s Irish Roots

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama share more than just the task of governing America.

Both Biden and Obama are descended from Irish shoemakers who fled from Ireland to the U.S in the 19th century. Obama's ancestor left in 1850 and Biden's left in 1848.

While Obama traces his roots to Counties Offaly and Tipperary, Biden can trace his to Counties Derry, Mayo and Louth.

In fact, Biden is so well-known for his Irish heritage that his Secret Service codename is "Celtic."

The Vice President is descended from a Famine-era family called the Finnegans who left Co. Mayo during the Great Hunger (An Gorta Mor). His great-grandmother Finnegan used to translate the letters from Ireland as she was the only one in the family who could read or write in Gaelic.

The Biden name appears to have come from a Huguenot family which has been traced to Liverpool in 1668. His father, a car salesman, insisted the name was Irish but Biden was never able to confirm that.

Biden was born in the Irish heartland of Scranton, Pennsylvania, one of the most Irish cities in America.

There were already political genes in his DNA. “Edward F. Blewett my grandmother’s father, was the first Irish Catholic state senator,” Biden says.

“He was also the co-founder of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in Scranton around 1908. There is still a plaque in existence in Scranton showing he was one of the founding members.”

Biden grew up in Scranton in “a predominantly Irish neighborhood and an overwhelmingly Irish parish. The centerpiece of life in Scranton was the church, the nuns, the priest the monsignor,” he says.

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Nster.com