Joe Biden followed in the footsteps of fellow Irish-Catholic president John F Kennedy when he addressed the Irish parliament, as he namechecked former US leaders during the course of his speech.

The legacy of Mr Kennedy, who addressed a joint sitting of the Dail and Seanad in 1963, was reached for on a number of occasions by Mr Biden during the historic address.

Mr Biden, who like his predecessor has made little secret of his pride in his Irish roots, told parliamentarians: “We have the power to build a better future.”

He said that 60 years ago the “first Irish-Catholic president of the United States made a historic trip here speaking to this assembly and capturing the imaginations of Irish and Irish-American families alike”.

“When John Kennedy addressed parliament, the honour of the more than 150,000 Irish immigrants who joined the army of the North during America’s Civil War – and among them, one or two of them were my relatives as well – they signed up in a new land, to stand for old values, to defend freedom and the dignity of all people.”

Mr Kennedy was also invoked as the current US president spoke of Irish support for Ukraine. The country has taken in thousands of refugees since the Russian invasion last year.

“President Kennedy said 60 years ago and I quote ‘Ireland pursues an independent course in foreign policy, but is not neutral between liberty and tyranny and it never will be’,” Mr Biden said.

To applause, he said: “Over the past year, Ireland has proved him right. The Speaker said Ireland has stood proudly with the United States and partners around the world for liberty against tyranny.”

Barack Obama, under whom Mr Biden served as US vice-president, was also referenced as he recounted his family’s Irish emigrant background.

“My good friend Barack Obama, and he is my good friend, his grandfather was a shoemaker like mine – sailed five weeks earlier from the same port.

“The idea they both sailed for a new life and thought their great-great grandsons would both be president is, I think, really a little bit of Irish malarkey.”

Benjamin Franklin, one of the US founding fathers and one of the signatories of the US Declaration of Independence, also found his way into Mr Biden’s speech.

“Perhaps more than most, the United States was shaped by Ireland. That’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact. And the values we share remain to this day the core of our historic partnership between our people and our governments. As nations we’ve known hardship and division but also found solace and sympathy and wondering.

“Just four years before we issued our Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin came to the Irish parliament and described it as, I quote, ‘disposed to be friends of America’.”