In Belfast, Biden marks Good Friday accord despite Irish tensions

BELFAST - President Biden launched a trip Wednesday commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement with a warning on the delicate state of democracy in both the Emerald Isle and the United States.

“As a friend, I hope it’s not too presumptuous for me to say, but I believe democratic institutions established in the Good Friday Agreement remain critical to the future of Northern Ireland,” Biden said. “That’s a decision for you to make, not for me to make.”

The Good Friday Agreement ended decades of bloodshed between Catholics and Protestants, but tensions and animosity persist, flaring up anew in the aftermath of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Biden urged the leaders of Northern Ireland to restore their government, which has not been fully functional since February 2022. In fact, for 40 percent of the time over the past 25 years, there has been no working government.

In making his case, the president did not shy away from citing America’s own struggles. “I know better than most how hard democracy can be at times,” Biden said. “We in the United States have firsthand experience with how fragile even long-standing democratic institutions can be. You saw what happened on January the 6th in my country.”

In the U.S., Biden has often suggested that democracy must be fought for. In Belfast, he made the same case about peace.

“Peace was not inevitable,” Biden said. “You can’t ever forget that.”

Still, for much of his speech, Biden avoided current political disputes, focusing largely on the historic nature of the agreement and on his push for economic development and cooperation.

The leaders of Northern Ireland’s five main political parties were in attendance for Biden’s remarks, and the White House said the president would meet with them. But officials specified that it was not a formal group meeting and declined to say what message the president would deliver.

“I’m going to listen,” Biden told reporters when asked what his message would be for the leaders.

Biden’s Irish ancestry is a deep part of his personal history, but he does not appear to view the agreement in Northern Ireland as an important part of his political past. He did not mention the agreement in any of his books, and it did not feature prominently in his Senate speeches from the time.

As a senator from Delaware, Biden was among those who traveled in a delegation with President Bill Clinton to shore up support for the agreement in 1998, when Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Biden in a sense is in a similar position now, attempting to keep all sides aligned at a moment of uncertainty.

Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, which recently broke away from the European Union, while the Republic of Ireland is an independent nation and has remained in the E.U. That has created tensions and tangles related to borders and trade.

“The president I think is coming here very much as a friend of Northern Ireland, a strong supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, a strong supporter of the peace process, and I think with messages of support and encouragement,” Amanda Sloat, the Europe director on Biden’s National Security Council, told reporters Wednesday.

Biden began his visit to Belfast by meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, an engagement that the White House and British officials played down as more of an informal catch-up than an official summit. The two leaders had tea at Biden’s hotel before the president headed to Ulster University to deliver his remarks.

Streets were lined in Belfast with onlookers who filmed and photographed his motorcade as it passed. Some held American flags, while at least one displayed a flag supporting former president Donald Trump, and a woman held a sign that read: “FAKE CATHOLIC FAKE PRESIDENT.”

In his speech, Biden hailed the Windsor Framework, the recent agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union on how to handle trade in Northern Ireland, and he praised the region’s economic potential.

“Peace and economic opportunity go together, and 25 years since the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland’s gross domestic product has literally doubled,” Biden said. “I predict to you if things continue to move in the right direction, it will more than triple. There are scores of major American corporations wanting to come here, wanting to invest.”

Despite the frequent mention of the Good Friday Agreement, Biden’s visit here was not part of the official celebration of the deal. Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with other prominent politicians who were involved in negotiating the peace accords, will travel to Belfast later this week for more formal anniversary-related events.

Part of the challenge for Biden and the other luminaries visiting Belfast is reckoning with the shortcomings of the agreement in an area whose politics remain turbulent. Although “the Troubles,” when 3,600 people died and 47,000 were wounded, have long since dissipated, deep divisions - and sometimes walls - remain between nationalists, who want a “United Ireland” someday, and unionists, who want to remain “British Forever.”

Last month, Britain’s MI5 security service raised the terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland from “substantial” to “severe,” and on Monday, protesters threw firebombs at police in Derry, about 70 miles northwest of Belfast, during a parade opposing the Good Friday Agreements. On Tuesday, police found four suspected pipe bombs at a cemetery in Derry.

As a result, many locals are in no mood to celebrate. And some unionists are wary of Biden, given his strong Irish identity.

“Like the Belfast Agreement itself, I find nothing to celebrate in the visit of President Biden,” said Jim Allister, leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice, or TUV, a party favoring unity with Britain. “Biden is irredeemably partisan, having as a senator fought any easing of laws which would have allowed wanted [Irish Republican Army] terrorists to be extradited to face justice in the United Kingdom. His continuing stance is anti-British and anti-unionist.”

Biden aides pushed back against that criticism, emphasizing that the United Kingdom remains one of the United States’ closest allies.

“The track record of the president shows that he’s not anti-British,” Sloat said.

Biden began his remarks with an extended story about the British origins of his middle name, Robinette, and last name - even though he is a proud Irishman.

“So I don’t know what the hell is going on,” Biden joked.

After spending only a few waking hours on the ground in Belfast, Biden departed for the Republic of Ireland to start his deep dive into his ancestral history.