"Even more Irish than John Kennedy," says former diplomat Ted Smyth of the US President.
Journalist Niall O'Dowd tells how in Scranton Pennsylvania Joe Biden's grandmother would invoke the threat of the Black 'n' Tans when the young president-to-be wouldn't go to bed. This is while she was receiving letters as Gaeilge from family back home in Co Mayo.
Ahead of the then vice-president's visit to Ireland in 2016, he wrote: "North east Pennsylvania will be written on my heart but Ireland will be written on my soul."
Ever since the aforementioned JFK there's been a strong tradition of US presidents claiming Irish roots – especially Reagan, Clinton and Obama. But Joe Biden is different – he's major league.
The 78-year-old's political ties with Ireland date back almost 50 years.
Joe Biden was vice-president for the eight years Barack Obama was in the White House
"You have to remember this is a guy who's been a senator since 1973, going right back to the start of the Troubles," says Ted Smyth, a US-based former senior government official in the Republic and committee member of campaign group, Irish Americans for Biden.
"He's grounded in so many issues about Ireland in a way that Kennedy was not."
There's little doubt that the Irish now have a seat at the White House's top table, a relationship that should be politically positive for both countries.
But will the president's ties with his ancestral homeland have any significant impact on Irish politics, and will it somehow accelerate efforts to unite the island?
Nationalists in the north welcomed November's US election result accordingly, many citing Joe Biden's intervention in the Brexit negotiations during the presidential campaign as a clear indication of where his sympathies lay.
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Sinn Féin MP Chris Hazzard told The Irish News that the US president has a "deep understanding of Ireland", as demonstrated by his "strong commitment to protect the Good Friday Agreement in relation to Brexit".
The South Down MP cites a border poll, as specified in the 1998 peace accord, as being among a number of issues the new White House administration's yet to be appointed special envoy will have to address, alongside the ongoing impact of Brexit and the legacy of the Troubles.
Joe Biden pictured with Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and President Barack Obama as part of the St Patrick's Day celebrations in Washington DC in 2009
Ulster Unionist leader Steve Aiken, whose US-born wife is a member of Democrats Abroad, believes bigger geopolitical concerns, such as the rise of China, and a major focus on domestic policy, will leave the new president with little time or inclination to influence Irish affairs.
The South Antrim MLA argues that relations with the UK will still be a priority and that President Biden will be keen "not to make trouble with an ally" by agitating for a border poll on behalf of nationalists.
US-based Niall O'Dowd disagrees and he too highlights last September's mid-campaign intervention by the then Democratic nominee when the British government appeared set on breaking international law with the UK Internal Market Bill.
"It was an amazing step for a candidate to go out on limb like that but it was indicative of where he came from," he says.
The Tipperary-born Irish Central journalist, who says the president's political hero is United Irishmen leader Theobald Wolfe Tone, believes that because of Brexit Ireland is entering a phase "where the issue of unity is becoming more central" and that as the debate advances, Joe Biden "will be on the side of nationalism".
"The fact that you have a president who has a lot of knowledge about Northern Ireland and has shown an interest in it above and beyond any recent president makes it a good time for Irish-America and Irish nationalism generally to engage in a discussion about unification," he says.
Similar sentiments have recently been aired by Pennsylvanian Congressman Brendan Boyle, who wrote that a referendum on Irish reunification was coming and Dublin, London, Brussels and, notably, Washington need to do the groundwork.
But Queen's University's politics lecturer Peter McLoughlin thinks "Biden's role in any move towards unification is overstated".
Joe Biden pictured during a visit to Co Mayo in 2016
"That doesn’t mean he’s not genuine in expressing pride in his Irish identity and opposition to anything that would undermine the Good Friday Agreement," he adds.
The QUB academic places the US president in the "powerful transatlantic consensus for constitutional Irish nationalism" once embodied by John Hume, and suggests the line Washington will take is likely to mirror Dublin's, which currently "sees talk of a border poll as destabilising".
"I imagine Biden would, like Dublin, stick close to the Good Friday Agreement formula and Hume’s old but no less relevant rhetoric about Irish unity being something that can only come about through agreement between the peoples of Ireland, and that the building up of relations on the island is the key task for now," says McLoughlin.
"I can’t see Biden taking any more risk than that – he has enough to do uniting the US, never mind Ireland."
Ireland's former ambassador to Canada Ray Basset again emphasises consistent US support for the Good Friday Agreement and says that "under Biden USA involvement and interest will increase".
However, he argues that the US role in the peace process is "often misunderstood".
"In my 20 years of dealing with the US in the Department of Foreign Affairs, including being part of the Irish government's talks team in the run up to the 1998 agreement, I've never seen the US take on an active or leading role," he says.
"As successive US administrations have pointed out, the president will row in behind the Irish and British governments when Dublin and London are in agreement and request the US to lend its prestige and support."
Nevertheless, Basset says the the US's role should not be downplayed.
"It is a very supportive friend and very influential especially with (Irish) republicans."
Ted Smyth also predicts an arm's length approach, perhaps with occasional hugs, as the US's Covid recovery and other domestic policy takes precedence.
"US presidents don't want to get involved in a 'he said, she said' zero sum game when it comes to foreign policy," he says.
"Joe Biden's major focus will be bringing jobs at home."
Smyth points to the "emerging Shared Island narrative", primarily driven by Fianna Fáil and the SDLP, that's competing with Sinn Féin's push for a border poll in the shorter term. He speaks of the president's support for a "shared citizenship where Irish and British citizenship are recognised".
Past practice would suggest that the Biden administration will be pragmatic and in step with Dublin, though this comes with the proviso that the current coalition government is sustained through most of the president’s four-year term. A Sinn Féin government in the south could alter the dynamic of transatlantic relations significantly.
