Joe Biden set to reach in Northern Ireland to mark 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement

US President Joe Biden says his journey to the island of Ireland will underscore the United States’ dedication to peace and prosperity.  

He is because of arrive in Belfast later, the place he’ll be met by the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

The pair will maintain a bilateral assembly on Wednesday, after which President Biden will ship remarks commemorating the Good Friday Agreement at Ulster University.

The US president can also be anticipated to fulfill representatives from all 5 of Northern Ireland’s most important political events.

Ahead of his journey, he tweeted: “25 years in the past, Northern Ireland’s leaders selected peace.

“The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement ended decades of violence and brought stability.

“I stay up for marking the anniversary in Belfast, underscoring the US dedication to preserving peace and inspiring prosperity.”

The president will arrive in Northern Ireland the day after petrol bombs have been thrown at a police automobile in Londonderry throughout an Easter parade.

Addressing the problem of violence, White House spokesman John Kirby advised a press briefing: “As for security concerns, you know we don’t ever talk about security requirements of protecting the president but the president is more than comfortable making this trip and he’s very excited to do it.”

Following Wednesday’s scheduled occasions in Belfast, President Biden will journey south to Ireland, the place he’ll maintain conferences with the Irish President Michael Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

He’s attributable to handle a joint session of the Irish parliament and can attend a banquet dinner in Dublin Castle.

The president’s attendance at occasions to mark the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement displays the US’ affect in serving to to underpin peace in Northern Ireland.

In Washington DC, he’s recognised as a politician who labored in direction of a breakthrough lengthy earlier than it got here 25 years in the past.

Read extra:
Good Friday Agreement 25 years on – the way it led to peace, hope and paralysis

Stella O’Leary, chair of the Irish-American foyer group, was appointed by President Biden in 2022 to be US observer to the International Fund for Ireland. It has been used over many years to assist promote peace and co-existence in Northern Ireland.

Ms O’Leary advised Sky News: “The United States has given half a billion dollars to that fund to maintain the peace. It was in existence from 1986 and it formed the foundation of the peace agreement. So it’s been a long time and Joe Biden was in there from the start.

“He facilitated the funding of the International Fund, with many others – it was a bipartisan effort.

“Ireland has a great debt to America for the role it’s played and he is a representative of that commitment.”

Mr Biden’s four-day journey will likely be a mixture of formal and household. A descendant of Irish immigrants to the United States, he’ll go to County Louth and County Mayo, from the place his ancestors left for America within the nineteenth century.

He will ship remarks at St. Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, County Mayo, to which his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt bought 27,000 bricks in 1827. The bricks have been used to construct the cathedral and their sale helped to fund Edward’s passage to the US along with his household in 1851.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, the place his ancestors settled and the place he spent the primary 10 years of his life, the Irish-American neighborhood celebrates the achievements of one in every of their very own.

Nearly 1 / 4 of town’s inhabitants have Irish blood. They embrace members of the Joyce School of Irish Dance, the place we gauged the view on the native boy on the massive stage.

Brigid King, 20, advised Sky News: “It’s a very cool thing. I was raised very proud to be Irish, it was always a big thing in my family. So to have somebody in power who is Irish, very proud of where he came from, even though not being born in Ireland, is a very cool thing. He’s someone that shares the same passion as I do.”