US President Biden visits Ireland to mark 25th anniversary of Belfast Agreement
Northen Ireland marked the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday peace accords on Monday. US President Joe Biden is scheduled to arrive in Ireland on Tuesday to launch several days of high-profile commemorations.
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US President Joe Biden will arrive in Belfast on Tuesday to launch several days of commemorations, and to meet British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
No major public events took place on the anniversary itself.
The 1998 agreement established peace between pro-UK unionist and pro-Irish nationalist leaders, and was signed in Belfast on 10 April 1998, Good Friday, following marathon negotiations.
Brokered by Washington and ratified by governments in London and Dublin following an all-Ireland referendum on the text, the Good Friday Agreement officially ended three decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland and intermittent terrorist attacks on mainland Britain.
Sunak will attend a commemorative conference at Queen's University in Belfast and host a gala dinner to honour the anniversary.
We are delighted to announce that the president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr., will make a key address at UU’s Belfast campus in a historic moment for Northern Ireland. We can’t wait to welcome @POTUS to our campus to meet the next generation of @UlsterUni leaders. pic.twitter.com/WmKVKcrBQ3
— Ulster University (@UlsterUni) April 8, 2023
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Ancestral homes
President Biden will reportedly "mark the tremendous progress since the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement" and "underscore the readiness of the United States to support Northern Ireland's vast economic potential to the benefit of all communities."
The Irish-American president will then travel south to the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday, spending three days there, in part tracing his family history.
Biden is due to visit ancestral homes at Whitestown in County Louth on the east coast and then the town of Ballina, County Mayo in the west of Ireland – taking in Belfast, Dublin and other locations from the proudly Irish-American president's family history.
US President Joe Biden 🇺🇸 is coming Home to #Ireland 🇮🇪
— Irish Foreign Ministry (@dfatirl) April 5, 2023
Building on a rich history of US Presidents being welcomed to Ireland, bringing a message of Peace, Partnership & Prosperity 🤝
This is #GlobalIreland 🌍 🇮🇪
Info 👉 https://t.co/iJkENJjmJ1 @POTUS @WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/JGTY6rWjYI
Power-sharing deadlock
However, his visit will be closely scrutinised for any signs of pressure on Sunak to end the logjam in the Northern Ireland power-sharing executive caused by the Conservative Party's loyalist allies.
Local government has failed to function for the past 12 months because loyalist members are refusing to take their seats in the wake of confusion over post-Brexit trade and customs regulations. The Belfast agreement stipulates that both loyalist and nationalist representatives must be present for the executive to function.
Northern Ireland will continue its peace accord commemorations with a three-day conference starting 17 April hosted by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.
Her husband, Bill Clinton, US president from 1993 to 2001, played a pivotal role in securing the 1998 deal.
The upcoming events will celebrate Northern Ireland's subsequent transformation, but focus will undoubtedly be drawn to its present woes.
In the years after 1998, Northern Irish paramilitary groups were disarmed, the border separating the province from the Republic of Ireland was dismantled and British troops were sent home.
However, power-sharing institutions created by the accords have been paralysed for more than a year over bitter disagreements on post-Brexit trade.
The security situation has also deteriorated, with Britain's security services last month raising the province's terror threat level to "severe".
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