A visit full of symbols. US President Joe Biden Northern Ireland is expected on the evening of Tuesday 11 April 25e Anniversary of peace accord to end three decades of violence.
Proud of his Irish ancestry, Joe Biden will visit his ancestral lands in the Republic of Ireland this week. But he begins his journey to the British province with a bloody past, a sign of his focus on the peace process, but more recently the stirring political tensions in Northern Ireland.
On April 10, 1998, the Good Friday before Easter, Republicans in favor of reunification with Ireland and unionists within the United Kingdom, who remained aligned, won an unexpected peace deal after intense negotiations including in London, Dublin and Washington.
The treaty ended three decades of violence between Unionists, mostly Protestants, and Republicans, mostly Catholics, with the involvement of the British Army, which left 3,500 dead.
A quarter of a century later, the anniversary was observed on Monday without much fanfare and marked by incidents targeting the police as Northern Ireland is in the midst of a political crisis. Companies have been paralyzed for more than a year.
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The main event surrounding the commemorations is the arrival of the US President, who will land in the Northern Ireland capital of Belfast on Tuesday evening. He will be greeted directly on the tarmac British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Joe Biden “is very excited about this trip and has been for some time now,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said Monday.
“Celebrating those who make tough decisions”
On Monday, preparations were already well underway in Belfast for an even more massive security presence around US presidents traveling abroad. Law enforcement began closing several streets in the city center to traffic while patrolling with police dogs near City Hall.
Joe Biden will hold a meeting with Rishi Sunak on Wednesday morning, before John Kirby attends a conference at the University of Ulster in Belfast, where he will highlight “huge progress since the signing of the agreement”.
On Monday, Rishi Sunak highlighted the anniversary of the agreement as a time to “celebrate those who took the hard decisions, compromised and showed leadership”.
A compromise has not been reached in the province after 25 years, where the institutions created following the deal and meant to bring communities together – have been stalled for more than a year due to Brexit-related disagreements.
A post-Brexit freeze
The unionist party DUP (Democratic Unionist Party), affiliated with the provincial membership in the United Kingdom, refuses to participate in government in order to avoid the post-Brexit provisions of returning a physical border with Ireland. Abandoned.
In this already difficult environment, Northern Ireland also raised its terror threat level in February after an attempted assassination of a police officer by members of a dissident republican group.
On Monday, incidents erupted in the border town of Londonderry, where police were targeted during an unannounced march organized by a dissident republican group. No injuries were reported.
More than 300 agents are expected to be mobilized from other parts of the United Kingdom for Joe Biden’s visit to the province.
Visits his family
After completing the Northern Irish leg of the trip, the US president will visit the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday and stop in County Louth (East), where his family lives, before departing. Arrive Dublin in the evening.
Joe Biden’s family settled in the mid-19th centurye Centennial, like many others, fled famine-stricken Ireland and eventually settled in Pennsylvania.
On Thursday, the US President met with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and President Michael D. He is going to meet Higgins. He will also address Irish Members of Parliament.
He will end his tour in County Mayo (west), where his other Irish ancestors are from, with a speech in front of the cathedral in the small town of Ballina on Friday.
His Irish tour also has political stakes in the American political scene. With the 2024 election in sight, Joe Biden wants to appeal to voters who want the American Dream of immigrant victory.
With AFP
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