Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1496720
12 OPINION maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 APRIL 2023 Liam Kennedy is Professor of American Studies, University College Dublin THE US president, Joe Biden, is expected in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland next week to mark the 25th anniver- sary of the Good Friday Agree- ment. His visit will be one of his- toric symbolism and of personal significance, as an Irish Catho- lic president who has spoken proudly of his ties to the country. A few weeks ago, the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, formally invited Biden to come to North- ern Ireland to mark the anni- versary of the peace deal, which the US helped broker. The UK has much work to do to repair relations with the US follow- ing the Trump-Johnson years, especially if they are to pursue a much desired trade deal that has been stymied partly due to US concerns about the safety of the Good Friday Agreement post-Brexit. The four-day visit comes at a fragile time for the agreement, threatened by post-Brexit trade arrangements and political tensions in Northern Ireland. Power-sharing in the Northern Ireland assembly – a key fea- ture of the Good Friday Agree- ment – has been in limbo for over a year, due to a boycott by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). In a recent poll, a major- ity of Northern Irish unionists said they would vote against the agreement if a referendum were held today. The visit has other historical symbolism and personal rele- vance for the US president. Bid- en will spend three days in the Republic of Ireland. For that part of the island, the visit will be less about Northern Ireland issues, and more around the historical- ly resonant imagery of an Irish Catholic president returning to his roots. There is a long history of US presidents visiting Ireland. It is thought that 23 of the 46 pres- idents have been of Irish herit- age. Until the early 1960s, most visits were by former presidents whose families originated in Northern Ireland. In 1963, John F. Kennedy be- came the first sitting – and first Irish Catholic – president to vis- it. His sojourn was widely viewed as a symbolic homecoming. Both Irish and American media at the time described it as a "sentimen- tal journey". Biden, the second Irish Catholic US president, will stir memories of Kennedy. Biden will spend time visiting his ancestral home and meet- ing family in County Louth and County Mayo. He is clearly proud of his Irish roots, often referenc- ing how his family history has shaped his political career and worldview. As he wrote in 2016: "Northeast Pennsylvania will be written on my heart. But Ireland will be written on my soul." Biden has knowingly taken on the Kennedy mantle as a politi- cian. Over the years he has come to personify a liberal politics of empathy, in which his Irish an- cestry and Catholicism function as moral touchstones. However, this can shroud an underlying reality, that Ireland and the US are increasingly adrift, out of sync on matters political and cultural. At the same time, Irish Amer- ica is ageing and growing more conservative, with very few new emigrants refuelling it. Biden represents a disappearing figure, the last of a once powerful tribe of liberal Irish American politi- cians. A diplomatic mission Biden's visit should not be un- derstood as purely a sentimental journey. Indeed, looking back we can see that Kennedy's visit was much more of a diplomatic mission than many viewed it in 1963. Kennedy visited Ireland on his return from Berlin, after giv- ing one of the most important speeches of the Cold War. His engagement with Ireland at that time aligned the controversial- ly neutral state with the forces of "freedom". And behind the scenes, a good deal of diplomatic and economic business was car- ried out that would benefit Ire- land's relations with the US for years to come. As with Kennedy's visit, eco- nomic diplomacy will be im- portant, most obviously in the promise of US investment in Northern Ireland to reward and secure the new EU-UK deal on Brexit. It is also a chance for Biden to repair the US's global reputation for leadership in liberal interna- tionalism, which has been on the back foot since the Trump ad- ministration. Biden views the Good Fri- day Agreement as a significant achievement of US foreign policy, and one that enjoys bi- partisan support in the US. To celebrate it today is to assert the US's support for the rule of law in foreign policy, and pro- mote the agreement as a model of peace for other post-conflict states. He'll receive a warm wel- come, but like Kennedy, the visit is something more than just sen- timental. Joe Biden's historic visit to Ireland comes during turbulent times Liam Kennedy Biden has knowingly taken on the Kennedy mantle as a politician. Over the years he has come to personify a liberal politics of empathy, in which his Irish ancestry and Catholicism function as moral touchstones Joe Biden will spend three days in the Republic of Ireland