Former President Joe Biden was swarmed by protesters outside a Dublin ceremony honoring Hunter Biden, with objects thrown at his departure and multiple arrests by Irish police.
Joe Biden made a surprise stop Tuesday at Trinity College in Dublin, joined by Jill Biden, for a ceremony in which their son accepted a gold medal. Demonstrators and spectators packed the area outside the venue, and Irish police moved in as the visit ended. Yahoo News reported that as Biden left, some people stepped forward and threw objects, and officers from the Gardaí public order unit, Ireland’s national police public-order force, arrested at least two people.
The trip mixed family pageantry, a high-level meeting in Ireland, and an angry street scene that followed a former Democratic president months into private life.
Hunter Biden received the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution for Public Discourse at an event hosted by the College Historical Society. The award put the Biden family back under lights abroad even as legal and financial fights at home remain part of the public record, including recent moves in which Hunter Biden sought to shield a large award from unpaid legal bills.
Outside Trinity College, the mood was not ceremonial. Crowds gathered. Police vans sat on site. A man was detained by Garda officers near the college as the former president’s party departed.
Coverage of the same Ireland visit described a sharper edge to the protest. Just The News reported that an anti-Israel mob surrounded Biden’s motorcade and shouted obscenities, a street verdict from activists who once treated Democratic leaders as allies on the world stage.
That detail fits a familiar pattern: foreign policy fights that start in Washington do not stay there. They follow former officials onto campus grounds and city streets when the politics turn hot.
Biden also met Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Ireland’s prime minister, while in the country. The government sit-down and the medal event gave the trip an official sheen. The arrests and thrown objects gave it a harder finish.
The Dublin appearance came as Biden, 83, manages a prostate cancer diagnosis revealed months after he left office. He has said the illness has not stopped him, but it has slowed him, and it is already shrinking the rollout of his new memoir.
On Sunday he said he “won’t be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped.” That same health story has followed the family in other public moments, including when a rare selfie showed Biden with his daughter Ashley during the cancer fight.
"continue to be encouraged by how I've responded to treatment"
Biden added that “some days are better than others. It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down.” The memoir, titled Promise Me, America, is set for release Nov. 17. He has framed it as his account of “the challenges we faced, the decisions I made and why I made them.”
Those limits on travel and talk shows are not abstract. They are why the book push is already smaller than planned, a point also tracked as Biden scaled back memoir events while treatment continues.
Biden’s four years in office ended after he abandoned a reelection bid following the June 2024 debate with Donald Trump. The new book reaches for the last word on that stretch, and on the man who beat his party’s hold on the White House.
In the memoir, Biden recounts an Oval Office meeting with Trump days after the 2020 election. He says that Trump told him, “You know, Joe, if it weren’t for politics, I believe we’d be good friends,” and that Trump “had been relieved he didn’t have to run against me.” Separate reporting has also surfaced warmer paper trails from the handoff period, including when Trump’s farewell letter to Biden drew fresh notice.
"All presidents must confront a feeling that their legacy is vulnerable to the pendulum of politics and the whims of their successors."
Biden goes further in the text, blaming what he calls the “dismissive and destructive nature” of Trump for magnifying that worry. Readers can weigh those lines against the record they already know.
Back in Dublin, the optics were simpler. A former president and first lady stood with their son for a campus honor labeled “outstanding contribution for public discourse.” Outside, police made arrests. Objects flew as the motorcade left. An anti-Israel crowd made its fury loud enough for international headlines.
Hunter’s medal will not settle fights over influence, money, or accountability that dogged the Biden years. It does show how quickly elite venues move on to ribbons and speeches. Taxpayers and voters who watched years of family controversy get a different picture when the street answers with jeers and the public-order unit answers with cuffs.
Power leaves office. The arguments do not. In Dublin they met him at the curb.
