“I suppose he may say something else when in Dublin. But never mind!”
Biden has long celebrated his links to the Republic of Ireland, with family ancestry in Mayo and Louth dating back more than 150 years. During a visit to Ireland in April 2023, Biden said: “Coming here feels like coming home.”
The U.S. president does have English ancestral links too, with a great-great-great grandfather born in Sussex.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has already dismissed Johnson’s remarks about the outgoing president’s family history, which were trailed before the publication of the book.
“One question I definitely don’t need clarity from is that Joe Biden considers himself Irish,” Harris said. “I think Boris Johnson is a person who seems to be very good at selling books and I hope he is certainly much better at that than he was at being a politician.”
The former prime minister’s memoir contains a host of claims about world leaders including accusations French President Emmanuel Macron gave the U.K. a “punishment beating” for leaving the EU — and that a listening device was found in Johnson’s government bathroom after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used it.
