President Biden to Visit Northern Ireland and Ireland to Commemorate 25th Anniversary of Good Friday Agreement

President Biden to Visit Northern Ireland and Ireland
The White House has announced that President Biden will visit Northern Ireland and Ireland to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. Mr. Biden will first visit Belfast on Tuesday, April 11, one day after the landmark 1998 deal that ended 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland, known as The Troubles. Former President Bill Clinton, who played a key role in negotiating the agreement, is also set to travel to Belfast to mark the anniversary.
After Belfast, Mr. Biden will travel to Ireland from April 12 to 14, visiting Dublin, County Louth, and County Mayo. He will deliver a speech during his visit to celebrate the deep, historic ties that link the United States and Ireland. The president’s roots lay in Ballina, Ireland, where he will be visiting a sister city of Scranton, Pennsylvania on Friday. His great-great-great grandfather Edward Blewitt was born in Ballina before emigrating to the U.S.
Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar expressed his excitement in welcoming Mr. Biden to Ireland, especially as they mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. He noted the United States and President Biden’s essential involvement in the peace process in Ireland from its earliest, uncertain beginnings to the making of the agreement. He added that the U.S. has always been at their side in good days and bad.
Biden’s Ancestral Roots in Ireland
The visit of President Biden is particularly significant as it recognizes the “tremendous progress” made since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. His visit is expected to be an opportunity to reaffirm the strong relationship between the United States and Ireland and to underscore the long-standing partnership between the two countries.
The trip is also notable for Biden’s ancestral roots in Ireland. Ballina is preparing for his visit, with locals eager to see the most important person in the world who has a family background in their town. This visit follows in the footsteps of former President Barack Obama, who also had Irish ancestry, visiting Belfast in 2013 and Ireland in 2011. The Trump administration had announced in 2018 that former President Donald Trump would visit as part of a trip to Paris to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, but that trip was indefinitely postponed.