President Biden took a moment with family members Friday, pausing before a plaque commemorating his late son Beau at a Ireland hospice center — one of his last stops on the island before departing for the US later Friday.
The 80-year-old president observed the solemn moment at Mayo Roscommon Hospice in Castlebar, County Mayo, along with first son Hunter Biden and first sister Valerie Biden Owens, who have accompanied him on the four-day trip.
Beau Biden, a veteran of the Iraq War who also served as Delaware attorney general, died of brain cancer on May 30, 2015.
Biden was joined by Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation board member — and distant relative — Laurita Blewitt, who was seen wiping away tears, as well as Foundation CEO Martina Jennings, and Chairman Mike Smith.
Soon after leaving the vice presidency, Biden visited the site that would become the hospice center and turned the first sod in dedication to the memory of his son — which the plaque honors.
“When my family traveled to Ireland in 2016 we felt so much love and joy, but it was also bittersweet since it was a trip that I hoped to share with our son Beau,” the president was quoted as saying in The Irish Sun, though the trip occurred in September 2017.
“To come here together and to touch the soil of our Irish roots and our family’s history and heritage, the fact that you have etched Beau’s name in memory into the tapestry of this hospice is something my family and I, and his children in particular, will never forget,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, Biden was also brought to tears at a Roman Catholic shrine after a chance meeting with Fr. Frank O’Grady, the priest who administered Beau’s last rites.
The president, first lady Jill Biden and Valerie visited Beau’s grave last year at their Catholic parish’s cemetery in Wilmington, Del., on the anniversary of his death.
Hunter Biden tagged along with his dad for the presidential tour of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as the scandal-plagued first son publicly battles criminal and congressional investigations into his overseas business affairs.
The president on Wednesday affirmed his son’s presence on the trip, telling him to stand up before a crowd in Dundalk and adding that he was “proud” of him.
Hunter has stayed close by his father’s side throughout the visit, at one point helping him field questions from elementary school-age children of US Embassy staffers — though there were no formal news conferences.
After arriving in Dublin, the 53-year-old shielded his dad from rain with the presidential umbrella as Biden spoke with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar on the tarmac.
Biden told reporters before the trip that he was bringing along “two of my family members who hadn’t been there [Ireland] before,” referring to his son and sister.
A White House spokesperson told The Post on Tuesday that Hunter and Valerie were expected to “cover all additional personal expenses” from the trip.
The trip has been referred to as a “homecoming,” as crowds have cheered Biden and even held up signs that read: “Welcome Home Joe.”
The president’s Irish tongue tripped him up during a speech Wednesday, however, when he confused the name of a British paramilitary force during the Irish War of Independence with the name of New Zealand’s national rugby team.
Speaking about former Irish international Rob Kearney — who is the president’s fifth cousin — Biden called him “a hell of a rugby player and he beat the hell out of the Black and Tans,” an unfortunate reference to the notorious nickname for a Royal Irish Constabulary unit, rather than the New Zealand “All Blacks” rugby squad.
The state visit also included a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Belfast and a Biden address before Ireland’s parliament, during which he shared a bizarre story about how “literally 10,000 people” attended one of his presidential campaign stops moments after he walked past an anti-Irish sign in a Colorado train station.