US president Joe Biden has officially confirmed his visit to Ireland and Northern Ireland next week.
President Biden will visit Dublin, Louth and Mayo during the course of his trip.
He will arrive in Northern Ireland next Tuesday, the 11th of April with his press secretary saying he intends to mark the tremendous progress made since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement 25 years ago.
The following day he'll travel to the Republic where he'll continue a programme of events between Wednesday and Friday,(12th - 14th).
Those events will include meetings with President Michael D Higgins and the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, as well as a possible address to the Oireachtas.
The President will visit both Louth and Mayo, where he has ancestral ties.
It's expected the big address the US President will give, comparable to Obama at College Green, will be made in Ballina on the Friday evening before he boards Air Force One to return to the States.
Ballina based Minister of State Dara Calleary says the visit is particularly special as President Biden has ancestral roots in the area, his great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt hailed from here and his connections with his relatives here are active and vibrant.
Ballina is very proud of its connection to the Biden family, he says, and the community will give the US President the the warmest welcome home.
"The visit is an opportunity to celebrate the strong bonds of friendship and cooperation between Ireland and the United States and to renew the economic and cultural links that bind either side of the Atlantic," Minister Calleary concluded.
