‘We will have Jameson if he wins’: Joe Biden voter in Tuam nursing home

Irish whiskey will be quaffed at Greenpark Nursing Home in Tuam no matter the outcome of the US presidential election.

A resident of the Galway nursing home, US citizen Bridie Higgins, plans to nap on Tuesday afternoon so she has enough energy to stay awake overnight as the results trickle in early on Wednesday morning.

The 85-year-old has followed the election campaign carefully and sent her absentee vote by post last week.

“I wouldn’t miss the election for anything. I will be staying up late; that is for sure,” she says. She hopes her vote will move the dial in Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s favour.

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“I have requested a ‘B&B’– Bridie and Biden – party for if he wins. We will have Jamesons if he wins, and if he doesn’t win then we will drown our sorrows.”

Higgins grew up in Moylough, Co Galway, but spent most of her life in New York after a holiday in her teens led to her taking up residence in the Bronx and becoming a US citizen.

Studying American history at Manhattan College instilled in her a keen interest in politics that has endured to this day.

“I am very interested in everything that goes on in America,” she says. She reads newspapers sent over by her friends in the US.

“I read about Biden’s life and what he had done in America and how compassionate he is about all the problems people face in life.

"When I read about Donald Trump and what he was doing and saying, he never impressed me much. I thought: He is not going to get my vote."

Education paramount

As a teacher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Higgins ensured children being treated for cancer did not fall behind on their studies.

To her, Biden has shown he is an advocate of education: “He used to talk about teachers and how important they were in the lives of families. Teachers usually don’t get the same recognition as doctors but they have an immense influence on children’s lives. All of that made me feel that he would be right for president.”

“I feel we need somebody who would be more compassionate [than Trump] and a little bit more caring about the ordinary citizens of America.”

Having been unable to travel to the US due to the coronavirus, Higgins is hopeful she will get to visit the country at some point in 2021 for an extended holiday.

For now she is appealing to the wider Irish public to “keep lighting candles and praying” that she will be able to toast a Biden presidency come Wednesday morning.

Over in Ballina, the hometown of Biden's great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt, American citizen Derek Leonard has also cast a vote for the Democratic candidate .

While Leonard is hopeful Biden will win, he has many friends in Boston who are voting for Trump. They see more than just his “worst parts” that dominate international broadcasts, he says.

Biden mural

Leonard, who grew up on the same street as Biden’s ancestors in Ballina, Co Mayo, emigrated to the US in 1987. He has not only observed Biden’s progress from afar but welcomed the politician into Harrison’s, his pub on Ballina’s Main Street, in 2016.

Leonard was part of the group of community volunteers behind the mural of Biden on Garden Street. “It was a time where we were out of work and we wanted to keep ourselves active,” he says. “The mural kept us busy and we were trying to give [Biden] a boost for his election campaign.”

The mural has garnered international attention, bringing to the town CNN, the BBC and the Associated Foreign Press, as well as being covered by media outlets in India and the Middle East.

“It has let people know that Biden has a connection to Mayo before the election results rather than after … We were trying to put ourselves on the map and do as much for the local area and the local economy as we can. Hopefully, when he is president he will be back.”