Visit on the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Peace Agreement
60 years since Irish Kennedy
Presidential election ceremony amid chaos such as leaked documents
US President Joe Biden, whose great-grandparents were from Ireland, began a visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland. President Biden, who arrived at Belfast Airport in Northern Ireland on the 11th and was greeted by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, will visit Northern Ireland and Ireland one after another until the 14th. The visit was said to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Peace Agreement, which sealed the bloodshed that had lasted 30 years in Northern Ireland. However, while the United States is in chaos due to the unprecedented prosecution of a former president and the leak of classified documents, some analyze that President Biden ahead of the presidential election is a move to target Irish-Americans.
According to the New York Times (NYT) and others, President Biden arrived in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, around 9:00 pm on the 11th. Before leaving the United States, President Biden said, “The top priority is to resolve the political stalemate in Northern Ireland’s self-government after Britain’s Brexit (withdrawal from the European Union) and to keep peace.”
The Belfast Accords signed by Britain and Ireland in 1998 are a peace agreement that put an end to the bloodshed that lasted more than 30 years in Northern Ireland from the 1960s. After the War of Independence from Britain in 1921, Ireland declared a republic and Northern Ireland remained a British territory. In the aftermath, Northern Ireland was split between unionists who wanted to ‘remain in Britain’ and nationalists who wanted to be part of Ireland. As the conflict escalated, armed conflict between the two sides began in earnest in the 1960s, and the conflict continued for 30 years, resulting in more than 3,500 deaths.
With the Belfast Accords, Northern Ireland remained a British territory and people and goods could flow freely between the two sides. However, Northern Ireland, which is the only UK bordering the European Union, has suffered serious economic damage, such as complicated customs procedures since Brexit, and social confusion has increased. In particular, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has advocated integration with the UK, is refusing to participate in the Northern Ireland government, claiming that unity with the UK has been damaged due to trade barriers. According to the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland should form a joint government through a coalition between the federalist and nationalist parties to ease the conflict between the British and the Irish.
President Biden made a justification for his visit to Northern Ireland to celebrate the significance of the Belfast Agreement, but there is also an interpretation that it is a political move to gain favor with Irish-American voters ahead of his presidential run. According to Statista, a global market research institute, Irish in the United States account for 9.5% (approximately 31.5 million people) of the total population as of 2021.
CNN analyzed, “The Belfast Agreement is one of the most successful legacies of American diplomacy in the 20th century,” and “it also aims to solidify the Democratic Party’s position in American society, which is in chaos due to the leak of classified documents.” In the process of signing the Belfast Agreement, then-US President Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell and other Democratic Party figures actively mediated and produced results.
There is also an analysis that this visit is to enjoy the halo effect of former President John F Kennedy. The Guardian, a British daily, reported that among a total of 45 US presidents, including former President Donald Trump, former President Kennedy, the 35th, was the only Irish Catholic, and then President Biden was the second. Democratic Congressman Brendan Boyle (Pennsylvania), who accompanied this visit to Ireland, emphasized the connection, saying, “President Biden visited Ireland 60 years after former President Kennedy visited Ireland in 1963.”
Biden has been highlighting his identity as an Irishman by calling himself the “Son of Ireland” in his usual public appearances and quoting Irish poetry. When he visited Ireland as vice president in 2016, he also promised, “I will come back when I become president.” President Biden plans to visit the states of Louth and Mayo, where his distant relatives live, during this visit.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.