Former US president Joe Biden made a surprise appearance in Dublin on Tuesday.
The 83-year-old met Taoiseach Micheál Martin for a private visit. A Government spokesman said the meeting covered “a lot of things close to president Biden’s heart” including the Northern Ireland peace process and the work of reconciliation.
Biden is also said to have asked about this week’s European Political Community (EPC) meeting in Dublin and Ireland’s EU presidency.
They also discussed “international affairs in general” and “asked after each other’s families”.
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There were “some mentions of Mayo”, a reference to the county’s All-Ireland football victory which Biden – who has family and ancestry there – hailed earlier this year.
Biden later attended an event at Trinity College Dublin where his son Hunter Biden received a gold medal from the College Historical Society, known as The Hist.
The former president sat in the front row of the exam hall at the college to watch the presentation of the award, which was bestowed for “outstanding contribution to public discourse”.
He entered the hall unannounced but when the crowd noticed the presence of the former US president, they reacted with enthusiastic applause.
During the questions and answers segment that followed his address, Hunter Biden described Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza as “mass murder”.
He said his father, who continued to sell weapons to Israel throughout, “tried to make the best decisions at the time with the information that he had”.
“I totally agree that what is happening in Gaza, particularly right now, is absolutely and completely wrong, and there is no excuse for it.
“All of the people arguing whether to call it genocide. Let’s call it mass murder. It’s not right. That being said, I know this man, and I know he attempted more than anyone to curtail and stop it.”
There was a significant Garda presence as a number of people staged a demonstration at the college protesting Biden’s role in the war.
Two people were removed from the scene by gardaí, while the University Times reported students were pepper-sprayed.
During his address, Hunter Biden became emotional while recounting a story of a family intervention as he struggled with addiction. The former president bowed his head during this segment of the address.
“Here is the part that for so long I was so ashamed of. My father was holding me, terrified he was about to lose his second son and third child,” he said.
“All I could think about was what to say to make him let me go so that I could go get high. That’s addiction. That’s the disease.”
He said we are living “in an age of bullies”, something he learned with his “own name, with my own scars, with the worst years of my life paid bare”.
“Cruelty has a method,” he said. “The method never changes. He looks for the wound. He finds the thing you are most ashamed of, most frightened of, and he presses on it. Then he looks around the room.”
Joe Biden led the crowd in a standing ovation when his son finished his remarks. The two men briefly embraced before the former president mingled with the crowd before leaving.
At the weekend, Joe Biden said that his health would prevent him from making as many public appearances to promote his forthcoming memoir as he had hoped.
Biden was diagnosed last year with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spread to his bones. Biden underwent radiation therapy and surgery to remove skin cancer lesions, and Hunter Biden said in an interview over the summer that his father’s condition was worsening and causing him pain.
Biden said he had started writing the memoir, Promise Me, America, which covers his years as president, when he received the diagnosis. He indicated afterward that he felt intense pressure to finish quickly as he battled the disease, saying he was “working like hell” with his publisher.
Now, he says his cancer will also affect his ability to promote the book.
“Some days are better than others. It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down,” Biden wrote in a post on Sunday on the social media platform X. “What that means is, unfortunately, I won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped.”
He added: “My doctors continue to be encouraged by how I’ve responded to treatment.”
