From a UK point of view, the choreography of the visit to Northern Ireland could have been improved.
US President Joe Biden landed in Belfast on Wednesday with his son Hunter Biden and Joseph Kennedy III, US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs (a grandnephew of US President John Kennedy and Senator Edward Kennedy). The British welcome party consisted of the UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the Lord Lieutenant of County Antrim David McCorkell representing King Charles III and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton Harris. Despite the cameras there was no iconic handshake photograph on the tarmac of Belfast airport to symbolise the UK-US special relationship.
The reporting on the arrival was skewed towards President Biden appearing to favour greeting the King’s representative over the PM, then the President’s armoured limousine obscured PM Sunak from most of the cameras. This led to an amplification of the commentariat who perceive the President as anti-British.
It is a fact that President Biden is ineffably proud of his Irish lineage, he refers to it frequently as he follows in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton on this pilgrimage to honour 25 years on from the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (GFA).
It seems an Irish heritage gives folks a sense of belonging to an older history and culture, to which they become inseparable. There are over 30 million Americans with an Irish provenance, quite a vote bank should Biden announce he will run for re-election; the subtle message of descendant of Irish immigrant rises to be President of United States is a powerful campaign message.
The President’s maternal genealogy has been traced back to the Finnegan and Blewitt families who left for the US in the 1840’s and 1850’s from County Louth and County Mayo. Some in UK regard the President as making too much of a big deal about his Irish Catholic roots, they say his continuous dwelling about his Irishness is divisive as it feeds identity politics, they claim this goes against the GFA, and why is a US President identifying with one particular community in Northern Ireland. Arlene Foster, former DUP Leader, and Sammy Wilson DUP MP, added grist to the mill when they claimed that Biden was pro-Republic and anti-British, forcing the White House National Security Council Senior director for Europe, Amanda Sloat, to deny the allegations saying they were completely untrue. Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Leader of the DUP, said the President was welcome in Northern Ireland.
Biden also has English heritage, in 2020 an east-Sussex newspaper reported the President’s great-great-great grandfather was born in Sussex. William Biden was born in 1787 while the exact location of his birth has never been confirmed, a diary entry from a distant relative, Henry Biden, born in 1834, suggest the family had roots in Westbourne, near Chichester.
Biden brought a message of sustainable and enduring peace, he emphasized the importance of restoring the power sharing government at Stormont and the acceptance of the PM’s Windsor Agreement, to this end the President offered a $6billion carrot of investment for Northern Ireland. The DUP are responsible for boycotting Stormont and for not accepting the PM’s Windsor Framework, which is allegedly a sugar-coated version of Boris Johnson’s temporary Protocol, made permanent as the Windsor Framework was ratified by a Protocol-fatigued House of Commons in March. According to an assessment of the Framework by Martin Howe K.C. and Barnabas Reynolds, “Northern Ireland still remains subject to the power and control of EU law, the obligation for Northern Ireland law to follow changes to relevant EU law is unamended, subject only to the possible use of the new ‘Stormont brake’ which gives a certain number of members of the NI Assembly the ability to call for the rejection of incoming EU laws. However, this only applies to future changes to EU law and confers no right to change any part of the existing body of EU laws imposed on Northern Ireland under the NI Protocol. The hard border between two different legal systems in Great Britain and Northern Ireland that is the underlying cause of the checks and controls required between these two parts of the same country is not addressed; the Windsor deal at best will create some limited holes in that hard border.”
Biden did not engage about a UK-US trade deal but it is clear that the continuance of GFA peace agreement is essential and possibly conditional, as in past weeks there have been incidents of violence in Northern Ireland.
Biden and Sunak met briefly, resulting in the official American readout where “the leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, marking the 25th anniversary of a landmark agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland. They also welcomed the Windsor Framework as an important step in preserving that peace and progress. In addition, the leaders exchanged views on a range of global issues, including their continued support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression”. The British readout concurred and added “that they agreed manipulation of global markets by authoritarian leaders demonstrates the need for likeminded partners to work together to support the economic health and security of both nations… They also agreed on the importance of using global forums like the G7 and G20 to challenge economic coercion and market manipulation”.
A couple of curious reports emerged around the President’s visit, a resident of Belfast found a sensitive security document lying in a Belfast Street, the Police Service of Northern Ireland document detailed road closures, commanders assigned to posts and phone numbers and was handed to the BBC. The Belfast Telegraph reported that police had uncovered a bomb plot aimed at eclipsing President Biden’s visit. Another report claimed that in a simulation exercise the Irish Air Corps, responsible for providing military aviation support to the Irish Defence Forces, faced significant challenges in countering aerial threats due to its limited capabilities and resources, and would have been unable to stop a small aircraft being used against President Biden due to their limited radar capabilities and lack of air-to-air weaponry. Although the RBS 70 system cannot be used, sources said sizable Defence Forces were participating in the operation to protect Mr Biden when he is in Ireland. The President, who was wearing a shamrock the symbol of Ireland, made a faux pas when he meant to congratulate Ireland on beating the All Blacks in rugby back in 2016 in Chicago, instead he said they “beat the hell out of the Black and Tans,” which was a British paramilitary unit attached to the Royal Irish Constabulary that fought the Irish Republican Army. Biden and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had a cordial meeting resulting in a declaration of emerging and stronger ties between the US and Ireland.
From a United Kingdom point of view the choreography of the visit to Northern Ireland could have been improved, notably the President did not stop in London prior to Belfast which would have been the typical etiquette; nor did the Beast fly the Union flag on the bonnet after landing in Belfast only the Stars and Stripes and the Presidential Standard, later when the President travelled to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland the Irish Tricolour was flown. The president left a string of what could be interpreted as slights if anyone at No10 was that way inclined.