Galway singer’s tribute to Joe Biden’s Irish roots

A Connemara teenager has composed a new song about the US President’s Irish roots.

Colm Seoighe, from Barr Roisin in Ros an Mhíl, wrote ‘Joe Biden’s Trip to Ireland’ last year and released it on YouTube to coincide with the inauguration in Washington.

The 16-year-old wrote both the lyrics and music for the catchy little number, which references Biden’s Irish roots – including links to the Hanniffy family in Maree, Oranmore.

And the song – which refers to Air Force One touching down at the airport in Knock – even got a national airing on Ray Darcy’s RTÉ Radio One programme, which has over 200,000 listeners.

Colm, who is in Transition Year at Scoil Chuimsitheah Chiaráin in An Cheathrú Rua, used downtime during last summer’s lockdown to create the song.

“I had a lot of time on my hands because we were inside trying to stay safe and I wanted to start doing something creative. I was looking at the news and saw about Biden and started looking up his Irish roots, which were very interesting,” said Colm.

“I wanted to make it a non-political song, because I thought it would bring people together more to celebrate how he’s Irish rather than get political, because people can get very heated about politics.”

Colm said he referenced a number of Biden’s speeches throughout the song, and he name checked his relatives in Mayo, Louth and Galway – the Blewitts, the Finnegans and the Hanniffys (in Maree).

Colm went to primary school in Scoil Cholmcille in Ros an Mhíl. An actor, he featured in the movie Son of Granite in 2017, which was shown at the Galway Film Fleadh. Previously he’s had small roles in radio plays and stage plays.

As well as playing guitar, which he does in this latest song, he can also play bouzouki and banjo. Talent runs in the family and his older sister Róisín (21) is also a musician.

In 2017, he appeared on national TV with the O’Donovan rowing brothers, after they inspired him to write a song ‘Pull Like a Dog’.

Colm said: “Irish is my first language and that’s something I’m very proud of”.

This latest Joe Biden song is ‘as Béarla” and took almost a year to complete.

“I was a long time at it; there were a lot of things that I wanted to fit in and getting the tune right and the air to it, that took a long time. The idea was brewing I’d say a good six months or almost a year.

“I wanted to get it out before the inauguration as well. The lyrics went through a lot of changes since the start of it but I’m very happy with the final product,” added Colm.