Dundalk, Ireland - President Joe Biden said he feels like he's come home after an evening in the Republic of Ireland.

People lined the streets in Carlingford and Dundalk in County Louth to cheer and wave US flags as Biden arrived for his much-anticipated visit.

The president was accompanied by Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin as he toured St John’s castle, which offers a view of Carlingford Lough where Biden’s great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan left via Newry port during the Irish famine in 1849 for a new life in the United States.

As Biden walked around the castle amid the rain, someone shouted up to ask him what he thought of his visit, to which the president responded: "It feels wonderful, it feels like I’m coming home."

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Completing his first day in the Republic of Ireland, he said: "Thank you all for homecoming welcome. The bad news for all of you is we’ll be back. There’s no way to keep us out."

At The Windsor Bar in the town of Dundalk later, Biden met distant cousins John Owen Finnegan, Andrea McEvitt, and former Irish rugby player Rob Kearney, who was at the heart of a pretty big gaffe made by the president.

Speaking about the tie he was wearing, Biden said: "This was given to me by one of these guys, right here. He was a hell of a rugby player. He beat the hell out of the Black and Tans."

This was a reference to Ireland's mythical 2016 win over New Zealand in Chicago, but the nickname Biden was looking for is actually the All Blacks.

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The Black and Tans, however, were notorious forces recruited by the British to brutally suppress the 1919-1921 Irish fight for independence.

Still, given the widespread hatred still felt for them in Ireland today, a mention of anyone beating the hell out of the Black and Tans is more likely to raise cheers than anything else.