Military helicopters startling locals overhead, tall men in dark suits appear omnipresent around the town and all the bins have spontaneously gone missing: if you somehow haven’t seen the news lately, it’s all but clear in Dundalk that a certain president is coming to town.
The last time a US president came to the border town in Co Louth was in December 2000 when Bill Clinton visited just two years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, changing the course of history for ‘the Town’, as it is affectionately known.
“I cried when they signed the peace process,” said Dundalk native Joan MacGuinness, gently tearing up. “I looked at my kids and knew they could grow up in peace.”
As a business owner that benefited from US-funded development in the region, MacGuinness made a speech thanking President Clinton for his support. She was setting up her Christmas tree one Saturday when the call came, and by Tuesday evening she was standing in Dundalk’s Market Square in front of 60,000 people next to the world’s most powerful man.
“It was coming up to Christmas, it was dark, but the Christmas lights had just been lit so there was a lovely festive atmosphere around the place,” she said. “When you get asked about that, you can’t say no. We had to turn around, drop everything, and start preparing a speech.”
Clinton’s speechwriters were “worse than any English teacher”, as they assisted her in writing the speech. “They really wanted to reflect how much despair and hopelessness had been around, because there was a time when Dundalk was just a grey, grey place. It was an economic black hole.”
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Twenty-three years later, much has changed for the town, and an air of eager anticipation has descended upon the streets as President Biden plans to visit on Wednesday. From chit-chatting customers in shops to workers on the streets: it’s all people are talking about.
“The town is mad for it,” said shop-owner Bridget ‘Biddy’ McKevitt on Tuesday afternoon. “I didn’t think there would be much talk about it, but all day they’re rushing in for flags.”
Within five minutes on Tuesday morning, she sold out all her US flags at Trimmings Gift Shop and has a shipment of 200 more due on Wednesday morning.
“It’s all hush-hush,” she said. “People are blinded, no one knows when he’s coming to Cooley, when he’s coming here – people are just going to wait around for him. But they all can’t wait.”
Stephen Egan of Panama Coffee in Dundalk Market Square said if he had the opportunity, he would thank “son of Ireland” Joe Biden for his contributions to the country.
“Everyone’s talking about all these Chinook helicopters flying over – the full power of the American military in Ireland to protect the president,” he said. “We’ve had a couple of secret service guys in over the past couple of days, taking phone numbers of people who work here. There’s a general excitement in the town.”
“Dundalk was such a pivotal place for the Good Friday Agreement,” he said. “A lot of people from the North moved down here to avoid the Troubles. If you’re going to pick one town in the Republic that was impacted most by the Good Friday Agreement, it’s Dundalk. The town has been booming over the past 25 years.”
Over on Clanbrassill Street, where the president will enjoy a walkabout on Wednesday, Brendan Marmion is among the people in the town most enthusiastic about the visit.
“I will be out on a ladder shouting Uncle Joe!” he jested outside his paint shop. “That’s where I’ll be. I even put a sign on the door saying, ‘Welcome Joe’. We have all our bunting coming and we’re gonna flash the whole place. The windows will even be red and blue.”
“We’ll be talking about this for years to come,” he said. “The world will be talking about this little town Dundalk, in Co Louth.”
Amid a shroud of secrecy surrounding President Biden’s visit, there has been much haste about preparing the town for the occasion. Town centre commercial manager Martin McElligot woke at 3am on Tuesday to scramble with his colleagues to get the place ready. His team were hoisting flags and bunting, erecting structures, removing bins, sealing manholes and bringing forward scheduled works – long-time locals no doubt know the drill by now.
“My own team have gone home for a sleep at the moment,” he said on Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve worked everyone to the bone. Saturday night was a 14-hour shift from 10pm. It was the same on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and today as well. You only get one chance to shine.”
Poor weather forced the abandonment of painting of a wall beside St Nicholas Church, or ‘the Green Church’ as it’s known locally, and McElligot plans to finish the final coat “in the wee hours of the morning” during a spot of dry weather.
Sinéad Roche, Dundalk Tourism officer, said: “I will never forget the atmosphere in the town when Bill Clinton visited. You can feel that same momentum building again. But this president’s visit is coming on a different footing. We look different, feel different – we are different.”
