He was gone almost as soon as Dundalk knew he was coming. President Joe Biden’s fleeting visit to the Co Louth border town was historic, rainy and, most of all, brief.
Much of the country was issued with a status yellow weather warning by Met Éireann until 8pm on Wednesday, with winds of up to 110km/h forecast – thankfully Louth was excluded. It was one of those evenings where no item of clothing was saved from a good drenching, but the heavy rain and sharp nip in the air couldn’t stop people from taking advantage of the once-in-a-generation visit to the town.
Crowds steadily formed across the day in Dundalk for president Biden’s walkabout in the town on Wednesday evening. Locals, tourists and probably half the country’s gardaí swarmed the streets of the town. Music was being played and teenagers off on their Easter break were roaming about, no doubt a bit frazzled by all the commotion in their small part of the world. The word on everybody’s lips was ‘Joe’ – specifically when he’d show up and where he’d go, with an almost mythical shroud of secrecy still surrounding the finer details of the trip just hours before his scheduled arrival.
“We’re just so excited really,” said Lola Animashaun, who came out with her children for the presidential visit. “We don’t mind if it’s raining, snowing – whatever. We’re just so happy. We’re proud of what Biden’s doing right now. Fingers crossed for his election.”
At Panama Coffee on Market Square people sheltered from the elements to a soundtrack of Latin American music and a teenager belting out chords sporadically on a guitar. It didn’t quite have the festive mood of Bill Clinton’s visit to Dundalk in December 2000, but few passed up the opportunity to see the president – or for the teenagers, at least it was something to do.
Local woman Christine Larkin tactically crafted a waterproof sign out of her yoga mat on Wednesday morning, saying: ‘Make Joe President Again 2024′.
“I thought if it was paper it wouldn’t last in this weather, so I’ll have to buy a new mat!” said. “I think Joe Biden is a man who brought dignity to the White House. I heard his speech this morning, there’s just something really authentic about him as a human being.
“We’re the Wee County and we rarely get much publicity except bad publicity going back to the Troubles, when we suffered badly. We were called El Paso. Now, everybody’s going to know about Dundalk.”
Nearby was the sound of a concertina muffled amid the bumble of the crowd. Fourteen-year-old Eimear Murtagh was practising a newly learned Star-Spangled Banner.
“I just wanted to play for him,” she said, adding she came up from Lucan with her mum and cousin for the day. “You don’t get to see the president from America much, and the weather just made it sort of funner – it is cold though!”
When president Biden arrived in the town, it was jam-packed with people vying for the best view: hanging out of windows, climbing up poles, awkwardly clambering on tall plant pots. When a couple of people preemptively cheered, a sea of mobile phones shot up like periscopes in the crowd – anything to catch a glimpse of Cousin Joe.
For the main characters of the day, it was photo ops and handshakes all round, but, save for a few allowed into a viewing area on Clanbrassil Street, Biden’s impact was momentary, if at all.
As his small army – or motorcade as some people like to call it – whizzed through the town, many sprinted alongside the president, in the hope of seeing the man at the pub down the road. It seemed like a whole town was squashed into about a square mile, but many of the onlookers caught no sight of the man they had come to see, instead left to air questions to people nearby: did you see him? Which car was he in? Is it over?
Further along, as the president rolled passed cheers of affection in his gargantuan vehicle and stepped out to head into the Windsor Bar and Restaurant, one disappointed woman was heard saying: “Was that it? I waited hours for this fella.”
