The rain nearly drowned them but when the sun burst through, everyone could feel the love. Enda Kenny bounded onto the Dublin Castle platform and said Saturday would see the biggest and best ever gay pride parade in the city, and the Taoiseach seemed genuinely proud of that.
Michael Barron of LGBT youth outreach group BelongTo, hugged Joe Biden like both men had a really strong bond of friendship.
When the US vice president spoke, he touched all the bases of his Irish ancestry but more than that, he spoke powerfully about inclusion and tolerance, about shared values and visions and about “nobody being left out”.
He recalled, as a youngster, being with his father and seeing two men displaying affection towards each other. “It’s simple,” his father explained to the young Biden, “they just love each other.”
Recalling how President Barack Obama had quoted Patrick Kavanagh's Raglan Road when giving the eulogy for his son Beau Biden, the vice president said migrants just wanted us to "give them the chance of the dawn of a new day".
He denounced “reactionary politicians and demagogues” who “play to our fears and scapegoat immigrants”, building walls instead of bridges.
He didn’t have to name names: the 3,000 or so people who crowded into the castle’s Dubhlinn Gardens knew exactly to whom he was referring.
They had waited for Mr Biden, stoically through bouts of torrential rain, but were entertained by musicians and by Ryan Tubridy, who addressed the crowd: “My fellow Europeans . . .” Mindful of health and safety as proceedings were getting going, he asked them: “Did anyone point out the brexits?”
Singer Sinéad White began her set with "a song I wrote about someone I hate".
"If you were smaller, like an insect/ I would crush you . . ."
She didn’t mention any name but several came to mind.
Seo Linn, led by Stiofán Ó Fearail, created a big primal, bear hug, rolling thunder sort of a sound, but no US vice-presidential visit would be complete without the Chieftains, on the road since 1962 and starting their set with the quietly rousing The March of the King of Laois.
"The longer I'm here," Mr Biden said, "the more I wonder why in the hell did my relatives leave." But leave they did – in the mid-19th century like so many others – the Blewitts from Ballina, the Finnegans from Louth. Their legacy, an inheritance enjoyed by Ireland and America together, was the simple belief, he said, "that anything, anything, is possible".
Literature and history, sadness and joy bound us together, as well as “nostalgia about the future”.
He recalled the president of China asking him to define America in one word. Mr Biden said he thought for a while and answered: “Possibilities”.
“What is that notion if not an Irish notion?” he asked the crowd.
