The US President Joe Biden’s visit to Ireland continues on Thursday with set-piece engagements, including an address to the Irish parliament.
He will spend most of the day in the company of leading Irish politicians and meet Irish President Michael D Higgins.
His visit to the Republic of Ireland encompasses both the personal and the political, on Wednesday evening it was all about the personal.
President Biden visited both Dundalk and his ancestral roots in the town of Carlingford in County Louth.
Mr Biden met distant relatives in the Cooley Peninsula, where crowds lined the quayside as the presidential motorcade arrived.
Later in Dundalk, there were shouts of “Welcome home, Joe” when Mr Biden arrived to address an audience at the town’s Windsor Bar.
There he said Irish people were the “only people in the world in my view who are actually nostalgic about the future”.
On Thursday, President Biden will begin his working day with a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin, the home of the Irish president in Dublin’s Phoenix Park.
While there he is expected to inspect a military guard of honour, plant an oak tree to mark the occasion, sign the visitors’ book and ring the Bell of Peace.
A joint delegation attending the event will include Tánaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and former Irish football star Paul McGrath.
A major security operation is underway in the Republic of Ireland’s capital, with a number of city centre roads closed.
Phoenix Park has been shut until 17:00 local time on Thursday, with pavements near Dublin Castle shut for pedestrians until midnight on Friday.
BBC/ Adebukola Aluko
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