THE IRISH PRESIDENT

President Joe Biden's Irish roots - from fleeing Famine Ireland to being the newest resident of The White House

Joseph R Biden's ancestors, who came to America trailing broken dreams and heartache, likely never dreamed that over a century later, their descendant would be elected President of the United States of America. All eight of Joe Biden's greatgreat-grandparents on his mother Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan's side were born in Ireland during the first half of the 19th century. On his father Joseph R. Biden Sr.'s side, two great-grandparents were also born in Ireland.

On May 31, 1849, Owen Finnegan, Biden's great-great-grandfather from the remote Cooney Peninsula, in County Louth, arrived in New York aboard the ship Brothers, fleeing the last of Ireland's Famine. As was often the custom, he came before the rest of his family. A shoemaker by trade, he procured employment, and a year later, he sent for his family.

His wife Jane (nee Boyle) immigrated with her and Owen's children (including Biden’s great-grandfather, James) almost a year later on May 15, 1850, on a ship named the Marchioness of Bute, according to genealogist Megan Smolneyak, who traced the lineage for the Biden family.

Members of the Finnegan family went north to upstate New York picking apples and working with farmers. James Finnegan joined them for a time before heading west, ending up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, home to the Molly Maguires, a "secret society" of Irish immigrant miners who fought for workers' rights against the mine bosses. The mine bosses sent in the Pinkerton detective agency to break the union.