Biden’s ancestor saved thousands during the Famine, historian reveals
FAMINE historian Dr Ciaran Reilly will be especially keen to watch Joe Biden being sworn in as president of the United States tomorrow.
The Maynooth University professor had the honour of meeting Mr Biden when he visited here in 2016 as US vice president under Barack Obama.
And he thinks the president-elect may end up repeating family history in a bid to get millions of Americans whose lives have been turned upside-down by the pandemic back to work.
In a revelation that pleasantly surprised the incoming leader of the free world, Dr Reilly told Mr Biden how his great-greatgreat-grandfather Edward Blewitt, a native of Ballina, Co Mayo, helped save thousands of people in the area from starving to death during the Famine.
Mr Blewitt, who was a surveyor for the Ordnance Survey, was appointed in 1848 to oversee the relief efforts in the area.
“The workhouse in Ballina was full,” Dr Reilly said, adding, “chances are that if you went into the workhouse you’d end up in the graveyard”.
Mr Blewitt was tasked with employing local people in relief schemes to build roads and other infrastructure that would give them paid employment to ward off starvation.
“They kept an awful lot of people alive,” said Dr Reilly.
“There could have been around 700 or 800 people employed and with five or six people in every home, it would be a couple of thousand people kept alive,” he said.
While not everyone survived the relief projects, with many so badly malnourished they couldn’t even survive the journey to their work places, they did keep many people alive who would have otherwise starved to death, he said.
And when Dr Reilly informed Mr Biden of his ancestor’s role in the Famine, he was taken aback. “He didn’t know anything about it. When he heard the story he stopped me and asked me to repeat it; he was adamant that his grandkids would hear it,” he said.
“He looked to (former Taoiseach Enda Kenny who accompanied him on the trip) and said ‘we should be proud of this man’,” he said.
Dr Reilly said he and Mr Biden discussed how little is known about the people in Ireland who survived the Famine and he was intrigued by the story.
Mr Blewitt, meanwhile, emigrated to Scranton, Pennsylvania, two years later.
As Mr Biden prepares to take over the reins of power this week, he may well be looking into a similar relief scheme for the millions of Americans who are unemployed and finding it difficult to put food on the table as a result of Covid-19.
“He is faced with challenges now that are similar to what his ancestors faced,” Dr Reilly said.
“I’ll be watching him with interest,” he said, adding it was an honour to meet with the man who would become president of the US.
“This was momentous. Not many people get to do it,” he said.
“I’ve met a lot a people but you could genuinely tell he was interested.”