Taoiseach Simon Harris has dismissed claims by Boris Johnson that US president Joe Biden said he’s “not really Irish”.
Mr Harris said “one question I definitely don’t need clarity from is that Joe Biden considers himself Irish”.
It comes after the former British prime minister wrote in his new memoir that Mr Biden told him privately that his family origins were connected to Kent, rather than Ireland.
According to The Irish Times, Mr Johnson wrote: “In fact, he (Biden) disarmed me completely by saying that his family origins were not really Irish at all, and that the Bidens were an old seafaring family from Kent (which seems plausible, since -den is a common Kentish termination).
“I suppose he may say something else when in Dublin. But never mind!”
Research has revealed Mr Biden had links to Westbourne in West Sussex, England, but his Irish roots are more apparent.
He has links to counties Mayo and Louth, something he has spoke out on numerous occasions as well as celebrating during visits to Ireland.
He received a very warm welcome during his first official visit to Ireland as president last April.
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He travelled across the island from Belfast to Dublin where he received a standing ovation as he addressed the Dáil before tracing his family roots.
The claims by Mr Johnson’s were made in his memoir ‘Unleashed’, which is due to hit bookshelves next week.
In the book, he looks back at his his time as mayor of London and as prime minister from July 2019 through September 2022.
But the alleged claims about the US president were dismissed by Mr Harris on Friday.
Ahead of his visit to the US next week when he will meet the president, the Taoiseach said he had no doubt Mr Biden considers himself to be Irish.
“There are very many pressing and serious issues that of course I want to speak to the president of the United States with, including our diplomatic relations,” he told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.
“I think one question I definitely don’t need clarity from is that Joe Biden considers himself Irish.
“I think Boris Johnson is a person who seems to be very good at selling books and I hope he is certainly much better at that than he was at being a politician.”
