Javier Aha |
Dublin (EFE).- The US president, Joe Biden, praised this Thursday the “special”, “strong” and “lasting” relationship that unites his country with Ireland, which he praised for the success of the peace process, now 25 years have passed since the Good Friday agreement, which put an end to the conflict on the island.
For its part, Ireland, represented by its politicians, rewarded him with a standing ovation, after granting him an honor that only three other White House tenants had had until now: John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, all three also with celtic connections.
On the second day of his four-day tour of the north and south of the island, Biden starred in a historic speech in the Lower House of the Irish Parliament, meeting in joint session, where he addressed his deep Irish roots with humor and anecdotes, as well as the advances achieved during a quarter of a century of the peace process.
“People of Ireland, it’s fantastic to return to Ireland,” said the American leader, who also dared to say “I’m home” in Gaelic, adding that he would like to “stay a little longer,” a sign of the genuine attachment he feels for the country, where he still has relatives or “distant cousins”, as the White House affectionately defines them.
With this political act, Biden was nearing the end of a day that began with bells and gardening, one of the great hobbies of the Irish.
“Smiling” Joe
One “for Ireland”, another for “my Irish ancestors” and one more “for peace”. And so up to three rings of the bell that “smiling Joe” gave, as the local press has dubbed him, in the gardens of the presidential palace in Dublin.
There he was officially welcomed by the Irish president, Michael D. Higgins, and his wife Sabina, with whom he signed in the guest book after reviewing the honor guard.
In the middle of the signing, Biden was encouraged by a quote from an Irish saying that says that “your feet will take you where your heart is”, although it was the protocol that later led him to the green area of the palace to plant with Higgins some trees and ring the so-called “peace bell”, installed in 2008 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.
Later he met with the Prime Minister, the Christian Democrat Leo Varadkar, in a meeting in which, in addition to congratulating each other on their respective leaderships in the face of the war in Ukraine, they discussed bilateral issues and the crisis of the democratic process in Northern Ireland.
Biden took up this last issue in Parliament when recalling the first stop on this tour in the British province, where he stressed the importance of the peace agreements, despite the political difficulties he is going through and the terrorist threat.
Visit to the town of his maternal family
Belfast’s autonomous Executive has been suspended for more than a year due to the rejection of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), second force, to post-Brexit trade arrangements, for which reason it refuses to enter a power-sharing government headed by the nationalist Sinn Féi, first regional formation.
For this reason, the US president insisted in his intervention in the Lower House in Dublin that “peace is valuable”, it improved “the lives” of “all the people of the island” and now he needs brave people “to defend it”.
Washington has been very critical of the British government’s management of Brexit in recent years, especially during the Boris Johnson and Lizz Truss periods, and Biden, contrary to this divorce, has also recognized that relations between London and Dublin it has deteriorated.
“Right now, the world needs Ireland, the United States and our unlimited imagination,” said the president, considering that the word that best defines both countries is “possibilities.”
The US president will return to the United States on Saturday, but before closing the visit this Friday in Mayo County (northwest), in the small town of Ballina, where part of his maternal family also comes from.
Biden will deliver a speech at Ballina Cathedral to celebrate the strong ties the United States and Ireland have.