What to see in Biden country, from Pennsylvania to Ireland’s County Mayo
- The US president-elect’s familial ties to Mayo, one of Ireland’s most traditional and untamed counties, run deep
- Often overlooked by international tourists, Philadelphia played a pivotal role in modern American history and Biden’s election
Here, a pair of regular Post Magazine contributors who know Mayo and Philly well remember these Biden landmarks fondly.
County Mayo, Ireland
US election celebrations echoed around the ancient castles, deserted beaches, giant sea cliffs, foggy mountains and salmon-rich rivers of Biden’s Irish ancestral homeland. He may have been born and raised in the US, but his familial ties to Mayo, one of Ireland’s most traditional and untamed counties, run deep.
I am familiar with the tribal pull of Mayo, on Ireland’s west coast, which is my mother’s birthplace and has been my on-off home of the past eight years.
Many of the large Irish communities in North America, Britain and Australia were formed by people, like Biden’s ancestors, who fled Ireland after it was devastated by famine in the 1840s.
That catastrophe, caused by a disease that ruined Ireland’s main food crop, potatoes, led to the death of one million people and prompted another two million to emigrate. Few of Ireland’s 32 counties shed as many of its sons and daughters as Mayo.