Joe Biden had called for calm and patience and in Ballina on Friday there was an air of everyone trying to keep busy, and not tempt fate by celebrating too early.
The Democratic Party contender's cousin, Joe Blewitt, was in a manner of speaking keeping as close as possible to the action, while getting on with his everyday work as a plumber.
"I am over in Ceathrú Thaidhg – next stop America – fixing a gas boiler," he explained over a dodgy mobile phone connection from the north Mayo coast.
The US vice-president’s Irish cousins have had a nail-biting few days but they were getting more upbeat with every news bulletin. “He’s flying now” said Blewitt who finally admitted to feeling confident and letting himself think about how they will celebrate.
It’s a bad time to be planning a party but he was hoping that a glass would be raised in his home “within our own little bubble” on Friday night.
Blewitt's sister, Brenda, who lives in Kildare was sad to be missing the excitement in her home town, and also trying to rein in her excitement as she waited for an end to the tortuous counting of votes.
Feelings of pride
“I am actually doing the school run but I had to flick on CNN before I left,” she explained when contacted for her view on her famous relative’s chances.
She thinks they are good. “They have increased the security around Joe, there seems to be a general feeling that this is it,” she said.
Brenda was in Ballina when then vice-president Biden visited a few years ago and remembers the “surreal” experience of watching her father Brendan chatting to his third cousin over dinner in a local restaurant.
“I remember thinking ‘there’s Dad chatting to the vice-president’ – it was lovely,” she said.
The Mayo woman admitted to feeling pride when she watched Joe Biden’s brief address to the American people on Thursday night when he stressed the importance of counting every vote, and of being patient.
“I thought he was dignified and respectful of everyone. And then the other lad came out and seemed to be stirring up violence.”
Ballina publican Derek Leonard is proud to have voted for Biden. He and wife Eithne lived in Boston for 15 years and have dual citizenship.
Pub visit
"I don't want to get too excited," he said on Friday. "The figures aren't moving quickly enough. They don't seem to have moved in North Carolina for two or three days."
Leonard got his photo taken with Biden on Garden Street in Ballina in 2016. "The photo was taken on one end of the street and by the time he got to the other end I had it printed and got him to sign it. He was even more delighted when the US politician dropped into his pub, Harrison's. "He is very charismatic, soft-spoken and unassuming," said the publican who also watched Donald Trump saying that the election was being stolen from him.
“I felt very sad as a US citizen watching that.”
Meanwhile, there is a little bit of bunting out near the Joe Biden mural on Market Square, Ballina, and talk of an open-air celebration on Saturday afternoon.
“But we don’t want to be triumphant, especially when he himself is being so measured,” said local solicitor David O’Malley.
Independent councillor Mark Duffy says the Covid-19 restrictions will be adhered to in Ballina this weekend but he believes a drop of champagne will flow.
“Donald Trump was talking about the Democrats being a big tech big pharma party and we’ll be very happy to take any big tech or big pharma we can get,” he said.
