US President Joe Biden has said he will continue to work with the Irish and British governments to get power-sharing restored at Stormont.
As he arrived back in the US following his visit to Ireland, President Biden said there was still "more to do" in Northern Ireland, but the restoration of the Assembly would be an incredible opportunity for economic growth and prosperity.
Last night, Mr Biden ended an emotive visit to Ireland with a campaign-style exhortation for hope, as he inched closer to formally launching his 2024 bid.
Earlier in the day, he had a tearful encounter with a priest before a concluding speech that coincided with an angry address back home by Donald Trump, his potential Republican rival for next year's White House battle.
"I told you my plan is to run again," Mr Biden told reporters on the tarmac of Knock airport before flying to the United States.
"I've already made that calculus. We'll announce it relatively soon. But the trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done."
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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it had been a really great visit, with a lot of work done, and thanked the president for giving so much of his time.
An estimated 27,000 people turned out to hear the president speak in front of the floodlit St Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina, one of his family's ancestral hometowns, in Co Mayo.
In 1828, Mr Biden's forebear Edward Blewitt sold the bricks that went into the construction of the cathedral, using the money to fund his famine-stricken family's later emigration to the United States.
The Irish and Americans were united by an optimistic vision, Mr Biden said in the speech.
"More than anything, hope is what beats in the hearts of all our people," he said, reprising the core message of his and Barack Obama's historic campaign in 2008.
"Even during times of darkness and despair, hope has kept us marching forward toward a better future, one of a greater liberty, greater dignity and greater possibilities."
'Shock of his life'
Mr Biden was in a more sorrowful mood earlier on a visit to the pilgrimage shrine at Knock.
Organisers made the last-minute discovery of a link between the Biden family and one of their priests, Fr Frank O'Grady, who returned to Ireland after years serving as a chaplain in the US army.
The president's son Beau Biden died of brain cancer aged 46 in 2015.
Fr O'Grady was not on the official guest list but was given hurried security clearance.
Mr Biden said it was "incredible" to meet by chance with the priest.
"It seemed like a sign," he said of the 10-minute meeting, which was joined by his son Hunter and the president's sister, Valerie Biden Owens.
Fr O'Grady told RTÉ that President Biden "certainly misses his son" but that the president said his Catholic faith had "sustained him".
"He has been grieving a lot, but I think the grief is kind of going down a bit," the priest said.
Knock Shrine parish priest Richard Gibbons said that Mr Biden "got the shock of his life" at discovering Fr O'Grady's presence in Knock.
"He was crying, it really affected him and then we said a prayer, said a decade of the rosary for his family.
"He lit a candle and then he took a moment or two of private (reflection) for prayer."
The US president went on to visit the Mayo Roscommon Hospice nearby with his son, sister, and Irish cousin Laurita Blewitt.
In 2017, he came for the building's groundbreaking, and a plaque there commemorates Beau Biden.
'I'm home'
President Biden then headed to Ballina, which was proudly displaying US flags and red, white and blue bunting as locals thronged the streets in anticipation.
Ballina commissioned a five-metre-high mural of Mr Biden when he won the 2020 presidential vote.
Blewitt descendants still live in the town, where the Mocha Beans cafe changed its shop sign to read "Mocha Biden" for the occasion.
"That buzz is incredible around Ballina," the cafe's owner Trevor Mangan said.
As a baby, Flori Garvin was given a cuddly toy donkey by Mr Biden when the Democrat visited Ballina as vice president. Now aged seven, she was back with her grandmother, Elizabeth Robinson, 63.
"She hasn't stopped talking about it," Ms Robinson said. "She thinks she's going to see him herself."
Co Mayo was the ancestral homeland of one branch of the Biden family, and the president also toured a genealogy centre to find out more about his origins.
President Biden had declared in a speech Thursday to the Dáil: "I'm home."
Ahead of a potential rematch against Donald Trump, the US president dwelt both at the parliament and the cathedral on the success of Irish people who had carved out a new life far from home.
"We Irish," he said, "we always believe in a better tomorrow because no matter what, we've always carried hope in our hearts."
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