London, Thanasis Gavos

With a short coffee meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at 11 am local, the official program of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland begins, following his arrival on Air Force One last night.

His presence in Belfast will last only a few hours, as after meetings with the leaders of the largest Northern Irish parties and his speech at the University of Ulster in the 1 local, he will depart for the Republic of Ireland.

Although before his departure from Washington the American President stated that his priority from this trip is to ensure the continued validity of the Friday Peace Agreement 25 years after its signing, the shortness of his presence in Northern Ireland has lower the bar of expectations regarding how much it will contribute to the re-opening of Stormond’s local parliament.

Northern Ireland’s legislature has been suspended since February 2022 after the DUP withdrew from the coalition government set out in the peace deal. The departure of the Democratic Unionist Party came as a reaction to the terms of the Brexit deal.

Downing Street was even forced to reject the claim that the bilateral meeting of leaders had been “degraded” by the US side, insisting that there was still an “incredibly positive working relationship” with the US government.

The security operation in Northern Ireland for Biden’s visit is the biggest in the region for a decade, with costs expected to reach £7m.

The US President’s visit to the Republic of Ireland will begin in the afternoon with a stop in County Louth, halfway between Belfast and Dublin. There he will have the opportunity to visit the places where his great-great-grandfather lived.

He will spend the night in Dublin where on Thursday he will meet with Irish President Michael Higgins and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, taking part in a symbolic tree planting ceremony. He will then address members of both houses of the Irish Parliament, the Dáil and the Senate. A formal dinner will follow in Dublin Castle.

On Friday, President Biden will visit Ballina, County Mayo, where the other half of his family is from. In fact, before departing for the return trip to Washington, he will speak at the local cathedral, which was built with bricks supplied in 1827 by his ancestor Edward Blewitt.