Embarrassed by his British roots: From an English surname his ‘grandparents were never crazy about’ to snubbing the BBC because he is ‘Irish’ – all the times President Joe Biden has shown disdain for his UK heritage
- Biden got a rousing reception when he arrived in Co. Louth on Wednesday
- He appeared to brush off PM Rishi Sunak on Tuesday after landing in the UK
- Biden has English heritage but has previously hinted he is ’embarrassed’ by it
Joe Biden’s Irish ancestry, which has seen him hailed as ‘unmistakably a son of Ireland’, has often been lauded by the US President – but he played up his English roots on Wednesday as he tried to counter claims he is ‘anti-British’.
Despite proudly speaking about his ‘Irishness’, Mr Biden has caused controversy with his jokes and jibes about the UK – even hinting at his ’embarrassment’ over his father’s British ancestors.
The 80-year-old, whose parents were both born in the US, has previously been severely criticised for a joke that ‘anyone wearing orange’ is not welcome in his home.
He has also in the past turned down an opportunity to speak to the BBC because he is ‘Irish’, and hinted at an embarrassment that his surname is of English descent.
The US President previously revealed how his English father, Joseph Biden Snr., had the ‘saving grace’ of also having Irish heritage, despite connections to Westbourne, West Sussex.
Joe Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania yet traces his roots back to County Louth and County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland
Mr Biden previously declined to comment to the BBC, telling the reporter: ‘I’m Irish’
Joe Biden was briefly greeted by Rishi Sunak on the steps of Air Force One in Belfast last night (pictured)
After a swift greeting with the UK leader Biden moved away to salute the King’s personal representative for County Antrim, Lord-Lieutenant David McCorkell. He then appeared to be wrapped in a friendly embrace with Jane Hartley, the glamourous US ambassador to the UK he appointed last year
Mr Biden said last year: ‘He had the saving grace, on his mother’s side, of having a Hanafee from Galway.
‘That’s the only thing that saved him. And you all think I’m kidding. I’m not.’
It was not the first time that Mr Biden has hinted at a familial embarrassment at his father’s English heritage.
He previously recalled his aunt telling him when he was young: ‘Your father’s not a bad man. He’s just English.’
More recently, Mr Biden appeared to snub UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as he brushed off his greeting after Air Force One landed on Tuesday.
After a swift greeting with the UK leader on the tarmac in blustery, chilly conditions he moved away to salute the King’s personal representative for County Antrim, Lord-Lieutenant David McCorkell.
He then appeared to be wrapped in a longer, much more friendly embrace with Jane Hartley, the glamourous US ambassador to the UK appointed by the president last year.
But the US president used a speech at Ulster University, marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, to deflect criticism over his ‘partisan’ pro-Irish stance.
In a rambling anecdote, he described how a former UK ambassador to the US had discovered that one of his ancestors wrote the rules of mutiny for the British navy in the 1800s.
Mr Biden – who has frequently trumpeted his Irish heritage – said that other parts of his family were from Nottingham, quipping that he ‘doesn’t know what the hell is going on here’.
The US President’s boasting of his Irish heritage has often been accompanied by ‘anti-British’ slights
Mr Biden has, in the past, also spoken of a discomfort at Biden being an English surname and revealed ‘my grandfather and my mother were never crazy about it being English’.
Last year, it emerged that Mr Biden once revealed his mother Jean so disliked England that she chose to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed in which the Queen had previously slept.
British screenwriter Georgia Pritchett claimed the US President made the revelation when they met in the White House during his period as vice-president.
She wrote in her autobiography how Mr Biden had recalled his mother visiting the UK and spending a night in a hotel where, Jean was told, the Queen had once stayed.
‘She was so appalled that she slept on the floor all night, rather than risk sleeping on a bed that the Queen had slept on,’ Pritchett wrote.
He has also recalled his mother telling him not to bow to the late Queen.
‘When I told my mother I was going to have an audience with the Queen of England, the first thing she said was, “Don’t you bow down to her”,’ he wrote in his autobiography.
During his long political career, the US President has made a series of risky jokes at times when he has been proudly displaying his Irish heritage.
As a senator in 1985, he spoke out against making it easier to extradite Irish Republican Army militants from the US to Britain, a sentiment popular with Irish-Americans but not in Britain.
In a 2012 meeting with then prime minister David Cameron, while he was vice-president, Mr Biden jokingly offered a message to Ambrose Finnegan, his grandfather, that ‘things have changed’ as he sat down with a British leader.
In 2015, Mr Biden was fiercely criticised after he quipped while welcoming then Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny to his home: ‘Anyone wearing orange is not welcome in.’
Northern Ireland’s primarily Protestant unionist community associate themselves with the colour in celebration of William of Orange’s victory over Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
And when he was president-elect after winning the US election in 2020, Mr Biden turned down a chance to speak with a BBC reporter, telling them: ‘The BBC? I’m Irish.’
Mr Biden’s team was forced to deny that he was ‘anti-British’ this week after the DUP slammed the president as ‘extremely partisan’ after he trumpeted his Irish roots.
The president was only expected to ‘greet’ the leaders of the main Northern Ireland political parties before his speech, after which he immediately headed over the border to the Republic, where he will spend the next three days.
Joe Biden used a speech at Ulster University, marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, to deflect criticism over his ‘partisan’ pro-Irish stance
He will not be visiting Stormont, where the power-sharing Assembly is currently suspended amid a boycott by the DUP.
The senior director for Europe at the US National Security Council, Amanda Sloat, stepped up to defend the President.
‘It’s simply untrue – the fact that the President is going to be engaging for the third time in three months, and then again next month and then again in June, with the prime minister of the UK shows how close our co-operation is with the UK,’ she said.
She added: ‘President Biden obviously is a very proud Irish-American, he is proud of those Irish roots, but he is also a strong supporter of our bilateral partnership with the UK, and not only on a bilateral basis within Nato, the G7, on the UN Security Council, and we truly are working in lockstep with the British government on all of the pressing global challenges that our countries are facing.’
He has addressed his English heritage in a speech in this visit to Europe, but it is believed to be the first time he has done this publicly.
Mr Biden will visit both on his tour of the country this week, which will follow his swift trip to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Mr Biden and Rishi Sunak held 45 minutes of talks over tea at a hotel on Wednesday. He praised the ‘leadership’ of Mr Sunak and the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen in striking the Windsor Framework for post-Brexit rules in the province, suggesting it could unlock more US investment and urging a return to powersharing.
However, hopes that the visit could help break the deadlock at Stormont have dwindled – with the DUP slamming the ‘extremely partisan’ president for ‘hating Britain’ after he trumpeted his Irish roots.
Mr Biden only ‘greeted’ the leaders of the main Northern Ireland political parties, before giving a speech and immediately heading over the border to the Republic, where he will spend the next three days.
And despite fledgling signs of a thaw in relations after the Windsor Framework eased the row with the EU over post-Brexit rules in the province, US officials made clear the leaders would not even talk about reviving a trade package.
Mr Sunak said the countries were ‘very close partners and allies’ and they had a ‘very good discussion’ about economic opportunities in Northern Ireland.
‘That comes on the back of a meeting I had with him last month in the US, I’m seeing him again next month at the G7 and then I’m going to Washington in June; we’re very close partners and allies, we co-operate on a range of things, whether that’s supporting Ukraine or economic security,’ he said.
‘I think actually the relationship is in great shape, and the President and I have lots that we’re working on together.’
The PM and US president held talks over tea at a hotel this morning as they mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement
Reporters shouted questions including if Mr Biden had a message for Northern Irish parties and why he was not discussing a trade deal
The president motioned that he could not hear, instead commenting on the ‘heck of a view’ from the upper floors of the Grand Central Hotel
A huge security operation has been in place for Mr Biden’s visit to Belfast on Wednesday
US flags have been in evidence in Belfast – although not all of them with supportive messages
Mr Biden opened his speech with seemingly off-the-cuff musing about his personal heritage.
He recalled how the former ambassador used to ‘always kid me, Biden’s English, you talk about the Irish, Biden’s English’.
‘He brought back a book with a photograph on the front… of a somewhat stout British captain in his quarters with a British bulldog sitting next to him.
‘And his name was Captain George Biden.’
The ambassador apparently had the Lord Admiralty check the records and the ancestor in the mid-1800s ‘had written the rules of mutiny for the British navy’.
Mr Biden said he then found out that the lineage of his middle name, Robinette, was also from England rather than France.
‘They must have been Huginots because they came to Britain in the 1700s,’ he said, joking: ‘I don’t know what the hell’s going on here.’
Mr Biden said that the ‘dividends of peace are all around us’.
‘This very campus is situated at an intersection where conflict and bloodshed once held a terrible sway,’ he said.
‘The idea to have a glass building here when I was here in ’91 was highly unlikely.
‘Where barbed wire once sliced up the city, today we find a cathedral of learning built of glass and let the light shine in and out.
‘This has a profound impact for someone who has come back to see it.
‘Its an incredible testament to the power and the possibilities of peace.’
Mr Biden said he envoy Joe Kennedy would lead a trade delegation of US companies to the region later in the year.
He acknowledged that Brexit had created ‘complex challenges’ for Northern Ireland.
‘I encouraged the leaders of the UK and the EU to address the issues in a way that served Northern Ireland’s best interest,’ he said.
‘I deeply appreciate the personal leadership of Prime Minister Sunak and European Commissioner Von der Leyen to reach an agreement.
‘The Windsor Framework addresses the practical realities of Brexit and it is an essential step to ensuring the hard-earned peace and progress of the Good Friday agreement that they are preserved and strengthened.
Biden’s long history of ‘anti-British’ views
There have been fears that Joe Biden could enrage unionists with references to his Irish heritage during his visit to Belfast.
As vice president, Mr Biden caused massive offense to Northern Ireland’s unionist community when, during a St Patrick’s Day event, he joked: ‘If you’re wearing orange, you’re not welcome here.’
Northern Ireland’s primarily Protestant unionist community associate themselves with the color in celebration of William of Orange’s victory over Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
As a senator in 1985, he spoke out against making it easier to extradite IRA militants from the US to Britain, a sentiment popular with Irish-Americans but not in Britain.
He has talked often about his mother’s hatred for England, which was so intense that she once refused to use a bed that Queen Elizabeth II had slept in.
In his memoir, ‘Promises to Keep,’ he recalls with a degree of embarrassment at his English surname Biden.
And he describes how his Irish-American aunt Gertie Finnegan once told him: ‘Your father is not a bad man. He’s just English.’
In 2020, as president-elect, he took a cheeky dig at the UK’s national broadcaster when a BBC reporter shouted a question at him. ‘The BBC?’ he said, moving on with a smile. ‘I’m Irish.’
‘Negotiators listened to business leaders across the UK and Ireland who shared what they needed to succeed, and I believe the stability and predictability offered by this framework will encourage greater investment in Northern Ireland, significant investment in Northern Ireland.’
Mr Biden said the response of Northern Ireland’s political leaders to the shooting of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in Omagh showed ‘the enemies of peace will not prevail’.
‘Northern Ireland will not go back, pray God.
‘The attack was a hard reminder there will always be those who seek to destroy, rather than rebuild.
‘But the lesson of the Good Friday Agreement is this: at times when things seem fragile or easily broken, that is when hope and hard work are needed the most.’
At the meeting at the Grand Central Hotel this morning, reporters shouted questions including if Mr Biden had a message for Northern Irish parties and why he was not discussing a trade deal.
But the president motioned that he could not hear, instead commenting on the ‘heck of a view’.
According to a Downing Street readout, Mr Sunak and Mr Biden ‘reflected on the legacy of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, which was signed 25 years ago this week’.
‘They agreed that this anniversary is a moment to celebrate the progress that Northern Ireland has made over the last quarter of a century and to recommit to building an even brighter future for Northern Ireland.
‘The Prime Minister thanked President Biden for the role the US people and businesses have played in Northern Ireland’s prosperity, with billions of pounds of investment creating tens of thousands of jobs.
‘The Prime Minister and President Biden both expressed their sincere hope that the institutions in Northern Ireland will be restored as soon as possible.’
Mr Biden and Mr Sunak also discussed the ‘wider relationship between the UK and the US’ during the meeting, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
‘They agreed that manipulation of global markets by authoritarian leaders demonstrates, more than ever, the need for like-minded partners to work together to support the economic health and security of our nations.
‘The leaders said that the thriving trade relationship between the UK and US demonstrates we are doing just that.
‘They looked forward to discussing the issue of economic security further during the G7 Summit next month and the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington DC in June.
‘They also agreed on the importance of using global forums like the G7 and G20 to challenge economic coercion and market manipulation, and promote the economic well-being of our countries.’
Before the meeting Amanda Sloat, senior director for Europe at the US National Security Council, told a briefing for journalists the focus will be Northern Ireland and the war in Ukraine.
‘I don’t anticipate that the two leaders are going to be talking about a free trade agreement on this trip … I think their conversation is going to focus primarily on the situation in Northern Ireland given that that’s where they’re meeting, as well as the chance to touch base on Ukraine and some other issues,’ she said.
Ms Sloat flatly denied that Mr Biden was ‘anti-British’, or on what amounted to a holiday to Ireland.
‘I think the track record of the president shows that he’s not anti British,’ she said.
‘The UK remains one of our strongest and closest allies,’ she said.
‘And it’s difficult, frankly, to think of an issue in the world that we are not closely cooperating with the British on and it’s why the president wanted to have the opportunity to engage with Prime Minister Sunak this morning to start his his day here in in Belfast.’
She said Mr Biden and Mr Sunak had the opportunity to touch briefly on economic issues when they met in San Diego, a conversation which she said will be ‘furthered and deepened’ when they meet in Washington in June.
‘We’re continually looking for ways to engage with the UK on a whole range of economic issues,’ she added.
Downing Street had stressed a focus on smaller agreements with the US, such as one that has been mooted on minerals.
The leaders of Northern Ireland’s main political parties had the opportunity to talk to Mr Biden separately before he delivered the at Ulster University’s new £350million Belfast campus.
But there was no formal group meeting with the leaders. Although DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson was among those who chatted to the president, he said afterwards that the visit had not changed the ‘political dynamic’.
‘I had a brief conversation with the President and he made clear that it’s not his job, as we heard in his speech, to take decisions for political leaders in Northern Ireland,’ he said.
‘But the United States stands ready to support Northern Ireland in whatever way it can. So I welcome his visit here today [Wednesday], it’s good to see the president coming and we hope to see investment into Northern Ireland flowing from his efforts and those of his special envoy.’
Sir Jeffrey added: ‘Well, it doesn’t change the political dynamic in Northern Ireland, we know what needs to happen.
‘And I’ll be meeting my team over the next few days and we’ll be going back to the (UK) Government. We believe the Government needs to go further in terms of protecting Northern Ireland’s place within the United Kingdom and our ability to trade within the UK internal market and that’s what needs to happen now to enable us to move towards the restoration of the political institutions, we need the Government to deliver what they’ve said they will do, which is to protect our place in the United Kingdom.’
Asked if he believed Mr Biden was ‘anti-British’, Sir Jeffrey said: ‘I welcome his reference today to the Ulster Scots who made such an enormous contribution to the building of the United States of America.
‘I think that is an indication, an acknowledgement from the President of the United States of the very special contribution that Northern Ireland has made to the building of his country.
‘And his reference also to his own British ancestry, I think indicates hopefully that we have a president that recognises the United Kingdom is a close ally and friend of the United States.’
The unionist party’s Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson said this morning that Mr Biden had to take a share of responsibility for the ‘political instability’ in Northern Ireland.
‘He is seen as extremely partisan,’ Mr Wilson told Talk TV, adding that Mr Biden had shown himself ‘anti-British’ in the debates over Brexit.
‘I suppose this is more about Joe Biden his reelection attempts and appealing to the Irish vote in America,’ Mr Wilson said.
Northern Ireland’s primarily Protestant unionist community associate themselves with the color in celebration of William of Orange’s victory over Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
As a senator in 1985, he spoke out against making it easier to extradite Irish Republican Army militants from the U.S. to Britain, a sentiment popular with Irish-Americans but not in Britain.
He has talked often about his mother’s hatred for England, which was so intense that she once refused to use a bed that Queen Elizabeth II had slept in.
In his memoir, ‘Promises to Keep,’ he recalls with a degree of embarrassment at his English surname Biden.
And he describes how his Irish-American aunt Gertie Finnegan once told him: ‘Your father is not a bad man. He’s just English.’
In 2020, as president-elect, he took a cheeky dig at the UK’s national broadcaster when a BBC reporter shouted a question at him. ‘The BBC?’ he said, moving on with a smile. ‘I’m Irish.’
Where will Biden go on his four-day tour?
WEDNESDAY – Meet Rishi Sunak in Belfast and go to Ulster University to mark the Good Friday agreement.
Biden will travel to Dublin and then to County Louth.
THURSDAY – Biden will hold separate meetings in Dublin with Irish President Michael Higgins and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar before addressing Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament.
FRIDAY – Biden will visit County Mayo, exploring family genealogy and giving a speech about ties between the US and Ireland
Mr Biden crossed the border to attend engagements in Co Louth this afternoon.
The President has traced his ancestral roots to the area and he will tour Carlingford Castle in the county before spending the night in Dublin. He is then expected to visit Irish President Michael D Higgins on Thursday.
It has been announced that Dublin’s Phoenix Park will be closed for 24 hours from 5pm on Wednesday to facilitate the visit. Mr Higgins’ official residence is within the park’s grounds.
The White House said Mr Biden will take part in a tree-planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell at the President’s official residence, Aras an Uachtarain. Following that ceremony, he will meet again with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, whom Mr Biden recently hosted for St Patrick’s Day.
Mr Biden will address the Irish parliament and attend a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle tomorrow evening.
The President’s trip will conclude with a visit to Co Mayo, where he has also connected with distant cousins, on Friday.
He will tour the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock and visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit. He will then make a public speech at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina.
Monday marked 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland and left 3,600 people dead.
The President tweeted he would use the Belfast leg of his trip to underscore his nation’s ‘commitment to preserving peace and encouraging prosperity’ in the region.
But he was cautioned against exerting too much pressure on unionists by former prime minister Sir Tony Blair, one of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
He told Radio 4 Today: ‘One thing I learned about the unionists is if you try and pressurise them to do something that they’re fundamentally in disagreement with, it’s usually futile pressure, even if it comes from the US, so you’ve got to use that influence carefully.’
The UK is observing the milestone anniversary with a reunion of key players in the peace process alongside Biden’s visit.
Deep divisions remain over the conflict’s legacy, and authorities raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland to ‘severe’ in March as they warned of IRA dissidents opposed to the peace process.
Youths threw petrol bombs and set a police vehicle on fire during a dissident march in Londonderry on Monday.
Police said they had intelligence that a major attack had been planned so when masked teenagers threw petrol bombs at a vehicle, they simply withdrew rather than being sucked into what they thought might be an ambush.
The following day they said they had recovered four pipe bombs from a cemetery near the city.
‘The discovery of these devices was a further sinister and worrying development,’ said Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton.
So how Irish IS ‘son of Ireland’ Joe Biden? US President traces his roots back to County Louth and County Mayo and has often struggled to hide his ‘anti-British’ stance with risky jokes about those wearing orange and an ’embarrassment’ at his English dad
Joe Biden has been hailed as ‘unmistakably a son of Ireland’ – despite being born in Pennsylvania – while the US President’s boasting of his Irish heritage has often been accompanied by ‘anti-British’ slights.
The Democrat politician has often courted controversy with off-the-cuff remarks made when attempting to demonstrate his fierce pride about his ‘Irishness’.
The 80-year-old, whose parents were also both born in the US, has previously been severely criticised for a joke that ‘anyone wearing orange’ is not welcome in his home.
He has also in the past turned down an opportunity to speak to the BBC because he is ‘Irish’, and hinted at an embarrasment that both his father and his surname were of English descent.
Mr Biden claimed just last year that his father’s ‘saving grace’ was he also had Irish heritage, as well as connections to Westbourne, West Sussex.
Joe Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania yet traces his roots back to County Louth and County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland
The US President’s boasting of his Irish heritage has often been accompanied by ‘anti-British’ slights
Mr Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania yet can trace his roots back to County Louth and County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland.
Mr Biden will visit both on his tour of the country this week, which will follow his swift trip to Northern Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
His connections to Ireland come mainly on his mother’s side with his great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt having grown up in Ballina, Co. Mayo.
Blewitt emigrated to Scranton after the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.
Another of the US President’s great-great-grandfathers, Owen Finnegan, was a shoemaker from Co. Louth who emigrated to America in 1849.
His family, including Mr Biden’s great-grandfather James Finnegan, followed him in 1850.
The US President has previously revealed how his English father, Joseph Biden Snr., had the ‘saving grace’ of also having Irish heritage.
Mr Biden said last year: ‘He had the saving grace, on his mother’s side, of having a Hanafee from Galway.
‘That’s the only thing that saved him. And you all think I’m kidding. I’m not.’
It was not the first time that Mr Biden has hinted at a familial embarrassment at his father’s English heritage.
He previously recalled his aunt telling him when he was young: ‘Your father’s not a bad man. He’s just English.’
Mr Biden has, in the past, also spoken of a discomfort at Biden being an English surname and revealed ‘my grandfather and my mother were never crazy about it being English’.
Last year, it emerged that Mr Biden had once revealed his mother Jean so disliked England that she chose to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed in which the Queen had previously slept.
British screenwriter Georgia Pritchett claimed the US President made the revelation when they met in the White House during his period as vice-president.
She wrote in her autobiography how Mr Biden had recalled his mother visiting the UK and spending a night in a hotel where, Jean was told, the Queen had once stayed.
‘She was so appalled that she slept on the floor all night, rather than risk sleeping on a bed that the Queen had slept on,’ Pritchett wrote.
During his long political career, the US President has made a series of risky jokes at times when he has been proudly displaying his Irish heritage.
In a 2012 meeting with then prime minister David Cameron, while he was vice-president, Mr Biden jokingly offered a message to Amrbose Finnegan, his grandfather, that ‘things have changed’ as he sat down with a British leader.
In 2015, Mr Biden was fiercely criticised after he quipped while welcoming then Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny to his home: ‘Anyone wearing orange is not welcome in.’
Northern Ireland’s primarily Protestant unionist community associate themselves with the colour in celebration of William of Orange’s victory over Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
During an event at the White House last month to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, Mr Biden was described by current Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as ‘unmistakably a son of Ireland’
When he was president-elect after winning the US election in 2020, Mr Biden turned down a chance to speak with a BBC reporter, telling them: ‘The BBC? I’m Irish.’
During an event at the White House last month to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, Mr Biden was described by current Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar as ‘unmistakably a son of Ireland’.
He said: ‘Every American President is a little bit Irish on St Patrick’s Day – but some are more Irish than others.
‘I think it’s fair to say that today we’re celebrating our national day with a President who is unmistakably a son of Ireland.’
Mr Biden used the event to quote a poem written by his great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt.
The US President told the audience of his ancestor: ‘He had an engineering degree from Lafayette College and the heart of an Irish poet.
‘In 1919, in one of the over 100 poems that I found in my – when my mom passed away, in her treasures, he wrote about ‘his Ireland’.
‘In one stanza, he wrote the following: ‘From the fairest land, except my own, Neath sun, star, and moon, the citadel of Liberty, My mother’s land, aroon.”
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