I understand unionist concerns about having an internal trade barrier within their country, says outgoing US envoy to Northern Ireland Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy III, who was appointed to the role by President Joe Biden early last year, spoke to the News Letter and other journalists yesterday ahead of stepping down from the position in the coming months, ahead of President Elect Donald Trump coming to power in late January.

Mr Kennedy comes from a family that is considered to be ‘royalty’ in the Democratic Party, the party for which he was himself a member of the US House of Representatives, representing Massachusetts for eight years until 2021.

His great uncle was the late John F Kennedy, known as JFK, who was assassinated as president in 1963, months after a visit to Ireland, his grandfather Robert Kennedy, who was senior in JFK’s administration, was shot dead during his own presidential bid in 1968, and one of his other great uncles was Senator Ted Kennedy.

Mr Kennedy’s father, also called Joseph Kennedy, was also in the US Congress (parliament), where he was outspoken in his support for Irish nationalists. On a trip to Northern Ireland in 1988, ​he got into a row with a British soldier, who told him to back to his own country, to which Mr Kennedy replied: “Why don’t you go back to yours?”

The younger Joe Kennedy has, on his 10 visits to NI as envoy, tried studiously to avoid any sense of political bias between the two main traditions here. For example he carefully refers to the official name of the UK constituent country recognised by the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland.

Mr Kennedy said yesterday that he had greatly enjoyed his time as envoy and spoke of the great potential of the province, such as its workforce and its allure as a good place to do business and to live. He said he had done trying to woo some of the world’s leading businessmen to visit NI and consider it as a base for some of their operations.

The News Letter put it to Mr Kennedy that while he had impressed some unionists by his efforts to be neutral on the constitutional position here, unlike many of his pro nationalist Kennedy political predecessors, many people here would nonetheless baulk at receiving advice on financial matters here when Americans themselves would not tolerate such a trade barrier within the US, between its states.

Mr Kennedy replied: “The issues trying to resolve the border in the Irish Sea between mainland United Kingdom and Northern Ireland is something that is going to need and necessitate consistent effort and consistent engagement, not only with Westminster and the British government but engagement with Irish government, and the extent to which the US can play a constructive role and make sure that legitimate concerns here – that are legitimate –are addressed while preserving the nuances that characterise the unique aspects of this island.”

Yes, but did Mr Kennedy at an emotional level understand unionist concerns?

“Of course,” he replied. “When I explain issues around the consequences of Brexit and the fallout of it to folks back in the United States and talk about the challenges that some might have by saying, you know, that goods such as going between New York and Massachusetts would have to go through checks in Connecticut, people say. ‘well that’s weird’.

“That being said there is obviously nuances to what makes this island the special place that it is and so engaging those concerns that are brought up in good faith not just by the unionist community but people in Northern Ireland is the work going forward doesn’t mean that you folks are going to get it right and solve every challenge the first time through.

“I is that continued engagement that is going to be be necessary going forward.”