The New York Times :
As America turned slowly blue, Ballina held its breath.
Was it really possible that Joseph R. Biden Jr., considered a native son of this charming town on Ireland’s west coast – albeit five generations removed – was about to become the next American president?
It was. On Saturday, the election was called for Mr. Biden, and Ballina was ready to celebrate.
The first champagne cork was popped by Mr. Biden’s distant cousins in the town’s Market Square, watched by a few hundred delighted townspeople, two hours before CNN made the call. Someone drove up in a cherry red ’57 Buick Electra coupe with Elvis cushions in the back window. A speaker played Mr. Biden’s campaign song, Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own,” and the walk-on music from former President Bill Clinton’s winning campaign, “Don’t Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow).”
Pride in Mr. Biden is strong in this town. His great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt was born in Ballina and emigrated to Scranton, Pa., just after the great Irish famine of 1845 to 1849, according to historians. Now, the town can boast that it has produced not one but two presidents. Mary Robinson, the global human rights campaigner who became Ireland’s first female head of state, was born a few hundred yards from Market Square, in a house by the salmon-rich River Moy. She won election on Nov. 7, 1990 – exactly 30 years before Mr. Biden’s victory.
“It’s amazing to think of it,” said Aileen Horkin, an elementary schoolteacher in town. “I can tell any child in my school that they can grow up to be a president.”
On Friday evening, glued to CNN and the Irish public broadcaster RTE, not even these doom-laden fans of County Mayo’s heartbreaking Gaelic football team could see a way for their boy to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They would have to prepare a party for when the election was called. But where, and – with Ireland under a strict coronavirus lockdown – how?
The first question was easily answered.
As the sun set on Friday, a beautiful, crisp late-autumn day, the Ballina Community Clean Up group began to assemble under the town’s newest piece of street art, a giant, oddly Warhol-like Biden billboard that beams down on the Market Square. It was erected two months ago in what seem to have been guerrilla circumstances.
“We had it up before the county council knew,” confided Linda O’Hora, a member of the group who helped to paint and assemble the tribute in a local warehouse.
“Anything over 25 meters square would need planning permission from the council,” aid David O’Malley, a local lawyer and informal legal adviser to the group. “That painting is 24.98.” Anyway, he said, the image was on a private wall.
Next the planners had to decide how to decorate.
A lone string of stars-and-stripes bunting was located, and run across to a neighboring building. More would have to be found.
As America turned slowly blue, Ballina held its breath.
Was it really possible that Joseph R. Biden Jr., considered a native son of this charming town on Ireland’s west coast – albeit five generations removed – was about to become the next American president?
It was. On Saturday, the election was called for Mr. Biden, and Ballina was ready to celebrate.
The first champagne cork was popped by Mr. Biden’s distant cousins in the town’s Market Square, watched by a few hundred delighted townspeople, two hours before CNN made the call. Someone drove up in a cherry red ’57 Buick Electra coupe with Elvis cushions in the back window. A speaker played Mr. Biden’s campaign song, Bruce Springsteen’s “We Take Care of Our Own,” and the walk-on music from former President Bill Clinton’s winning campaign, “Don’t Stop (Thinking about Tomorrow).”
Pride in Mr. Biden is strong in this town. His great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt was born in Ballina and emigrated to Scranton, Pa., just after the great Irish famine of 1845 to 1849, according to historians. Now, the town can boast that it has produced not one but two presidents. Mary Robinson, the global human rights campaigner who became Ireland’s first female head of state, was born a few hundred yards from Market Square, in a house by the salmon-rich River Moy. She won election on Nov. 7, 1990 – exactly 30 years before Mr. Biden’s victory.
“It’s amazing to think of it,” said Aileen Horkin, an elementary schoolteacher in town. “I can tell any child in my school that they can grow up to be a president.”
On Friday evening, glued to CNN and the Irish public broadcaster RTE, not even these doom-laden fans of County Mayo’s heartbreaking Gaelic football team could see a way for their boy to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They would have to prepare a party for when the election was called. But where, and – with Ireland under a strict coronavirus lockdown – how?
The first question was easily answered.
As the sun set on Friday, a beautiful, crisp late-autumn day, the Ballina Community Clean Up group began to assemble under the town’s newest piece of street art, a giant, oddly Warhol-like Biden billboard that beams down on the Market Square. It was erected two months ago in what seem to have been guerrilla circumstances.
“We had it up before the county council knew,” confided Linda O’Hora, a member of the group who helped to paint and assemble the tribute in a local warehouse.
“Anything over 25 meters square would need planning permission from the council,” aid David O’Malley, a local lawyer and informal legal adviser to the group. “That painting is 24.98.” Anyway, he said, the image was on a private wall.
Next the planners had to decide how to decorate.
A lone string of stars-and-stripes bunting was located, and run across to a neighboring building. More would have to be found.
