Talks with Britain’s prime minister and a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement kick off US President Joe Biden’s first full day of visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland on Wednesday.
Biden, who often mentions his Irish roots, said Tuesday that this week’s visit to the Emerald Isle is not a vacation.
In response to a reporter’s question, Biden stressed the importance of the 1998 deal that brought peace to the island after decades of sectarian fighting between mostly Catholic nationalists, who wanted to unite with neighboring Ireland, and mostly unionists. Protestants, who wished to remain within the United Kingdom.
Biden’s top priority on this three-day visit, which will take him around the island, including the Northern Ireland capital Belfast, along with Dublin and his family’s ancestral home of Ballina, is to “make sure that the agreements Irish and the Windsor agreements stay in place,” he said. “Keep the peace, that’s the main thing.”
That is a breakthrough. That peace has been tested by Britain’s 2016 Brexit vote to leave the European Union, taking Northern Ireland with it and leaving the rest of the island in the EU.
White House officials say Biden brings decades of knowledge to the task.
“President Biden cares deeply about Northern Ireland and has a long history of supporting peace and prosperity there,” said John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the National Security Council. “As a US Senator, Joe Biden was a champion of how the United States can play a constructive role in support of peace.”
And analysts say there is a bipartisan will in the US for the island to succeed. They point to two ways the world’s richest nation can foster stability: with attention and with money.
“There may be investments in the region. There may be special envoys who remain committed. And then, I think an effort needs to be made to build trust as well,” she told the VOA via Zoom Donatienne Ruy, who researches Brexit and European issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “After the Good Friday Agreement, we all assumed that peace was made. That was really the time to kick the efforts into high gear.”
The situation has degenerated since the Brexit vote, and the Windsor Framework that Biden described has not won the support of supporters in the United Kingdom of Northern Ireland. politic party. The party has boycotted the government for more than a year, threatening the delicate power-sharing agreement formed after the 1998 peace accord.
And the leader of the independent Republic of Ireland explained what is at stake.
“We want to see the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement restored so that they can provide hope for a new generation,” Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said when he visited the White House in March to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Biden. “And we would like to see the people of Northern Ireland benefit from the rich economic opportunities available to them.”
But peace is a process, says Ruy. And so far, there has been encouraging progress.
“The reason I remain positive is that we see the rise and increasing success of non-sectarian parties in the political sphere,” she said. “So, yeah, we could be in a better place, but we’ve really made great strides since 1998.”
And for Biden, this visit has a personal story. Like most American families, the Bidens came from another continent. The town of Ballina was the beginning of its very American history.
“The Irish left here during the oppression and famine, went to Scranton and worked in the coal mines and on the railroads, really hard jobs, but with pride and enthusiasm for a better life. And they were able to provide that for their people. Ballina council leader Mark Duffy told Agence France-Presse: “And that has come full circle now with a son of Ballina, an ancestor of Ballina, becoming president of the United States and sitting in the Oval Office.
“On Friday, that son of Ballina will speak to the residents of this small town. But his words will be heard all over the world,” he added.
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