US president Joe Biden will arrive in Ireland on Tuesday as he begins a visit marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The itinerary of Mr Biden's four-day trip, which will include stops in Co Louth and Co Mayo from where his ancestors hail, follows that of other US presidential visits.
From John F Kennedy meeting his Wexford relatives in 1963, to Donald Trump spending time at his Co Clare golf resort in 2019, US presidents have crossed the pond to connect with Irish people, pay homage to their heritage, and discuss the important issues of the day.
Here are some of the most memorable moments from those past trips.
John F Kennedy
Sixty years ago, John F Kennedy described his trip to Ireland as the best four days of his life.
Taking place five months before his assassination, Kennedy became the first foreign leader to address a joint sitting of the Oireachtas, and his speech also marked the first time cameras were allowed into the chamber to record proceedings.
All eight of Kennedy's great-grandparents migrated to Boston from Ireland during the famine of the late 1840s.
"It took 115 years to make this trip, and 6,000 miles, and three generations," he said in a speech by the River Barrow near one of his ancestral homes in Co Wexford.
Richard Nixon
On a State visit to Ireland in October 1970, Richard Nixon arrived in Shannon and came to his ancestral home in Timahoe, Co Kildare. While there he visited a quaker cemetery where his mother's ancestors are buried.
The visit was marred by some protests against the Vietnam war. One man threw eggs at the presidential motorcade as it passed through Dublin city centre, forcing a waving Nixon to duck back inside the car for cover.
Nixon's wife, Pat, was also of Irish heritage and visited some of her relatives in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo.
#OTD 10/3/1970 The Nixons arrived in Ireland. President Nixon was only the second American President (after JFK) to visit Ireland. (Image: The Presidential Motorcade en route to Kilfrush House in Limerick from Shannon Free Airport. WHPO-4662-12A) pic.twitter.com/7MhyiAAahD
Advertisement— RichardNixonLibrary (@NixonLibrary) October 3, 2018
#OTD 10/5/1970 President Nixon being presented with a portfolio of reproduction documents concerning his ancestors by the historian of the Society of Friends in Ireland, Mrs. Denis Goodbody, at the Quaker cemetery in Timahoe, County Kildare, Ireland. (Image: WHPO-4688-03) pic.twitter.com/RdrghNL2Mx
— RichardNixonLibrary (@NixonLibrary) October 5, 2019
#OTD 10/5/1970 - President Nixon standing by the side of a road in Ireland during a brief stop of the Presidential motorcade (WHPO-4685-04) pic.twitter.com/vzOhATqFGh
— RichardNixonLibrary (@NixonLibrary) October 5, 2016
#Nixon50 #OTD 10/5/1970 President Nixon’s motorcade traveled from Timahoe through the towns of Kildare (shown here), Newbridge, and Naas, County Kildare, Ireland. (Images: WHPO-4678-12 & 30) pic.twitter.com/odsHBc4e8E
— RichardNixonLibrary (@NixonLibrary) October 5, 2020
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan visited Ireland in June 1984 alongside with his wife, Nancy. He addressed the Oireachtas and was given Freedom of the City of Galway.
His visit was memorable for a photograph of the president drinking a pint in John O'Farrell's pub in Ballyporeen, Co Tipperary, where his great-grandfather Michael Regan was born in 1829.
Renamed The Ronald Reagan for the visit, the entire interior of the bar – including the counter, the wall-length display cabinet and the beer taps – was transported to The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California in 2004.
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton visited Ireland three times during his presidency. He was greeted by ecstatic crowds in Belfast and Derry when he became the first US president to visit Northern Ireland as well as the Republic in 1995.
He returned to Ireland in 1998 following the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and in the aftermath of the Omagh bombing.
Clinton made a final visit in December 2000 as his presidency came to end.
George W Bush
President George W Bush's first visit to Ireland came in the immediate aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, as he met British prime minister Tony Blair at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, in April 2003. He also held meetings with taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Northern Irish political leaders amid anti-war protests.
He returned to the Republic in June 2004 for an EU-US Summit held at Dromoland Castle in Co Clare. Some 10,000 people turned out for a 'Stop Bush' rally in Dublin.
President Bush made a short, low-key visit to Shannon in 2006 to visit US troops serving in Iraq.
He made a final trip to Northern Ireland in 2008 when he met the DUP's Peter Robinson and Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness.
Barack Obama
Barack Obama kicked off a 2011 European trip in Ireland, drinking a Guinness in his ancestor's home village in Co Offaly and giving a memorable public address in College Green, Dublin.
"I'm Barack Obama, from the Moneygall Obamas. And I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way," said Obama.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump spent a low-key two days in Ireland in June 2019, almost entirely at his golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare.
While Trump made no appearances open to the public and met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar only in Shannon Airport on his arrival, his sons Eric and Donald Jr toured the pubs in Doonbeg and bought drinks for locals.
– Additional reporting: Reuters
