Joe Biden’s close link to Ballina (well, kind of, sort of)

The President-elect has a proud Irish heritage which also links in (loosely) with the home of the Big Prawn.

A poster shows support to US president-elect Joe Biden in his ancestral hometown of Ballina in County Mayo in northwest Ireland on November 8, 2020. - In Joe Biden's Irish ancestral hometown, distant relatives and well-wishers nursed happy hangovers on Sunday after a night spent toasting the success of the new president-elect -- and claimed credit for having "saved the world".` (Photo by Paul Faith / AFP) / TO GO WITH STORY BY JOE STENSON

PRESIDENT elect Joe Biden has a close association with Ballina. He even visited there in 2016.

Biden has distant family members still living there and his supporters even erected signage supporting his tilt at become the next President of the United States.

We are talking Ballina, Ireland, rather than Ballina, NSW, but the two towns are inextricably linked and therefore the Northern Rivers' can bask in the glory of Biden's victory by distant association at least.

You see, Biden's great-great-great grandfather, Edward Blewitt, was born in Ballina (Ireland) before emigrating to the United States after the famine.

As Vice President under Barack Obama he paid an official visit to Ballina in 2016, and has been back to the town several times on unofficial visits.

Many Irish from Ballina and the county it is in, Mayo, emigrated to the US and settled around Scranton which is the town Biden grew up in,

Both Ballina, NSW, and Scranton share the honour of being twin towns of Ballina, Ireland.

Let's hope when Joe Biden becomes the next president of the United States the good elected representatives of Ballina (NSW) invite him to visit on his first trip to Australia as the leader of the free world.