American vice president Joe Biden will visit Co Louth later this year to strengthen his Irish links.
That’s according to ESPN commentator Tommy Smyth, in an interview with the Gathering History Project last week.
Speaking to Harry Lee last week, the Knockbridge native said his wife Treasa was close to Biden.
“Treasa is a good friend of Joe Biden’s and she finds him to be a very nice man.”
Biden’s ancestors are believed to be the Finnegan family from the Cooley area.
Tommy said a lot of famous people in America had Irish heritage but never established the real connections.
“I mean a lot of these people have connections and never establish them. George Pataki was another one. He was the Governor of New York State. His grandmother came from the Mill of Louth. His grandmother wasn’t supposed to go to America. The sister got cold feet, and her other sister went.”
Tommy joked: “So Pataki was actually an illegal immigrant, whether he liked it or not because the wrong passport was used to get the grandmother to America.”
The proud Louth man is looking forward to the Biden visit, while recalling the Clinton visit of 2000, one of two high points in his career: “Anytime you get the opportunity to cover something like this, that’s good. Many, many, years ago I got a great opportunity on Larry King to cover the Pope’s visit to Drogheda and you would have to say that those are two major highlights. One of the things I like to do in the media is try to highlight where I came from and you can do that when you get the opportunity.”
You can listen to the full interview on www.gatheringhistory.com
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