Andrew Dickens Afternoons

The stars and stripes have been fluttering all week on the streets of Ballina -- the town of just 10,000 in the west of Ireland where US president-elect Joe Biden's Irish ancestors hail from.Ten of the former vice president's 16 great-great-grandparents were born in Ireland, according to the Irish for Biden campaign, with Edward Blewitt, Biden's great-great-great-grandfather, providing the Ballina connection.On Saturday, as CNN projected Biden's White House win, Ballina residents came out to celebrate their distant kin's success."I think Ballina has saved the world tonight, because without Ballina, there would be no Joe Biden," Smiler Mitchell, a local publican, told CNN.Balloons were tied to cars and the crowd sang "The Green and Red of Mayo," a famous ballad about the county where Ballina is situated. One car with a cardboard cut out of Biden in the front seat had a license plate which read, "PENNSYLVANIA BIDEN #1."In the lead-up to the election, the community held a "Ridin' for Biden" event around the brid