Biden wins US Presidential election

Democrat Joe Biden (77) has won the US Presidential election outside Donald Trump (74) from the White House.

Mr Biden, who has Irish roots, secured his win by recapturing the Midwestern states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - traditional Democratic territory that Trump had flipped in 2016.

With Pennsylvania in the bag, Mr Biden has accumulated 273 out of 538 Electoral College votes, surpassing the magic number of 270, thereby making it impossible for Mr Trump to secure a second term even if he were to win the remaining undeclared states.

Mr Biden is also ahead in Arizona and Nevada and in a near dead heat in Georgia, a southern state that has not voted for a Democratic president since Clinton in 1992 and is likely headed for a recount.

In a statement, Mr Trump, who has already threatened taking his case to the Supreme Court, said the election was far from over.

Earlier, he tweeted "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!"

Mr Trump is now set to become the first one-term president since George HW Bush in the early nineties.

Mr Biden, who got more than 74 million votes, is urging Americans to "come together as a nation and heal".

He will be inaugurated on 20 January.

The champagne corks are popping across Mayo this evening following confirmation of Mr Biden's election.

The Democrat's great-great-great grandfather on his father's side emigrated from Knockmore to America almost 200 years ago.

A mural in his honour holds pride of place at Market Square in the town.

After its unveiling, Mr Biden vowed to revisit Ballina in the event of him winning the election.

During a visit to Mayo as US vice-president in June 2016, he met a number of his relatives in Ballina and Knockmore, including Joe and Laurita Blewitt.

His cousin Joe, who visited the White House a number of years ago, had been confident of a Biden victory since the outset of the campaign.