Biden calls on London to work “closer” with Dublin to ensure peace in Northern Ireland

Peace in Northern Ireland is back at the center of US President Joe Biden’s agenda. Less than 24 hours after visiting the troubled British province, the occupant of the White House renewed his call for the re-establishment of an autonomous power-sharing government between republicans and unionists, and also called for the United Kingdom to work “closer” with the Republic of Ireland to ensure full respect and implementation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

“Although it is already a living reality for an entire generation of young people, peace is precious and still needs its supporters (…) I believe that the United Kingdom should work more closely with Ireland in this endeavor and never allow political violence to return and settle on this island,” said the president during a speech he gave this Thursday in Parliament in Dublin.

As he did a day earlier at the University of Belfast, Biden assured that “peace is necessary” for progress and economic growth and repeated that hundreds of American companies are ready to invest in Northern Ireland, but they are not doing so because “the institutions [autonómicas] Not working.”

As of February 2022, the government of Northern Ireland has been suspended, despite the fact that elections were held in May of that year and were won by the republican Sinn Féin. Reason? Protestants from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) reject co-government as set out in the peace accords, now celebrating their 25th anniversary, rejecting the terms that Brexit imposed on Northern Ireland.

“The greatest peace dividend from the Good Friday Agreement is an entire generation of young people, whose hearts are not formed by past grievances, but by the conviction that there are no control points for their dreams and that they write a new future of unlimited possibilities», He asserted that he was defending the pacts.

After meeting with Irish President and Prime Minister Michael D. Higgins and Leo Varadkar, Biden became the fourth president of the USA to intervene in Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament), after John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, all three also of Celtic roots. He began his speech with “I’m at home”, a few words to which the MPs responded with thunderous applause.

Biden took the opportunity to address the war in Ukraine and thanked Dublin for its support. And for this he quoted his unfortunate predecessor in office, John F. Kennedy, who assured: “Ireland has never been neutral between freedom and tyranny and never will be. Thanks for that.”