“It’s like coming home,” said US President Joe Biden on Wednesday during his visit to Ireland, the land of his ancestors.

Speaking in a pub in the northeastern city of Dundalk, the 46th US president said “when you’re here, you wonder why you’d ever want to leave”, referring to his Irish ancestors (on his mother’s side) who immigrated to America to escape the Irish famine of the 19th century.

The 80-year-old Democratic president may also have been thinking about the contrast between his low popularity in the US and the warm reception he received in the Republic of Ireland.

“It’s wonderful. It’s like coming home,” Biden said during his visit to a medieval castle.

During his tour, the US president greeted locals and did not refuse to be photographed with several who waited patiently, in the rain, to see him up close and cheer him on.

Ireland has hosted several US presidents, but Joe Biden is the only Catholic occupant of the White House to visit the country since John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963.

The warm reception he received in the Republic of Ireland was no match for the electrifying atmosphere Biden encountered in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With his brief visit, the US president wanted to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday peace agreement, which ended three decades of bloody conflict between Protestant Unionists and Catholic Republicans.

Joe Biden, who aspires to seek re-election in the presidential elections in 2024, also wants through his visit to the land of his ancestors to reach out to the heartbroken middle class in the US, assuring that the “American dream” is not dead and reminding that he himself comes from a humble, hard-working family.