Joe Biden visit to Northern Ireland: 'Shielding IRA men from UK justice does not make you more Irish'

Kenny Donaldson of the South East Fermanagh Foundation was speaking to the News Letter today, about a fortnight before the US President jets in to the Province for a visit marking 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

He said that Mr Biden’s visit surely cannot pass without the President “meeting the core constituency who were required to absorb the most painful of sacrifices arising from and since the Belfast Agreement” – namely, survivors and the bereaved.

Mr Biden has often sought to talk up his Irish Catholic heritage (although he also has English ancestors too); for example, in a St Patrick’s Day address last year, he told his audience “I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid”.

However, since it was announced he intends to come to Northern Ireland to celebrate the relative peace since the 1998 agreement, the spotlight has fallen on his past political record during the Troubles.

BIDEN SAID ‘I ABHOR IDEA THAT NORTHERN IRELAND JUSTICE SYSTEM IS FAIR’:

TUV leader Jim Allister for example had dubbed Mr Biden “an avowed nationalist partisan”, pointing to the president’s past record on paramilitary extradition and noting that he and other “meddling politicians” helped block the transfer of Joe Doherty – an IRA man who escaped Crumlin Road jail while being held over the killing of an SAS soldier in 1980.

In 2020, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, the former MLA, wrote on the Belfastmedia.com website that Mr Doherty regarded Mr Biden “as the lead opponent of moves to amend the extradition treaty to enable him to be handed over to the British”.

An account of a disagreement between Mr Biden and other lawmakers on the subject in 1985 (when he was a senator) is recorded in US Congressional archives.

It quotes Mr Biden as saying: “If we ratify this treaty, we will be admitting that the justice system in Northern Ireland is fair – a notion I absolutely abhor."

He was further quoted as adding: "Don't you realize that under this treaty Eamon de Valera would have been extradited?"

And the New York Times that same year quoted him as objecting to the treaty in these terms: “To take the administration position, one has to make the judgment that the current British system in Northern Ireland is in fact a legitimate and good system.

"If we pass this treaty, we are codifying that system.''

‘WILL BIDEN MEET WITH VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS?’

Kenny Donaldson, SEFF's director of services, said: "President Biden is a proud Irish-American and there should be nothing objectionable in that identity for people.

"We all have an attachment to our place, to people, to our sense of identity – and he is no different.

"However, it is quite another step to represent and/or advocate for those who have been involved in acts of terrorism and other forms of criminality, there is nothing patriotic in doing so and it doesn't make you more Irish.”

He added: "President Biden is viewed with suspicion by innocent victims/survivors of terrorism (particularly those impacted by Irish republican terror) and it would be important for him to set clear where he is now on these issues.

"We would welcome the opportunity to meet with the President of the U.S when he is across for events marking The Belfast Agreement.

"And just to say, Mr President, we're not picky: we're happy to meet you in Belfast, Dublin, where you claim your Irish ancestral roots, or anywhere in between.

"But it truly would be a scandalous omission if you return to the US without meeting the core constituency who were required to absorb the most painful of sacrifices arising from and since the Belfast Agreement signed on Good Friday 1998.”

Over 3,600 people were killed outright during the Troubles, with unknown tens of thousands maimed and wounded.

About 60% of the crimes were by republicans (mostly the IRA), 30% by loyalists, and 10% by state forces (overwhelmingly soldiers from Great Britain – although many of those killings were of paramilitaries actively seeking to mount an attack).

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Ironically, at around the same time Mr Biden was dismissing the fairness of the UK judicial system, leading IRA figure Eamon Collins was being processed through the justice system back in Northern Ireland.

A south Down IRA man, Collins had specialised in intelligence and "internal security" (ie, hunting informers).

He agreed to co-operate with police, giving up valuable information about his own crimes and those of others. He was put on trial and, to his own amazement, was acquitted in 1987.

He wrote of his astonishment at how fair his treatment had been – even though he had lied repeatedly throughout his trial, and was sure the judge knew it.

"The judge's words had sent a real shock through my body," he said of his acquittal.

"I felt peculiarly emotional about them. The law, that part of the system at least, had revealed its genuine dignity: there could be such a thing as the impartial application of the rule of law.

"This judge had brought to life for me, even though he loathed the IRA, principles which were important boundaries between civilization and barbarism."

He contrasted this with the parallel paramilitary "justice system" which he used to help run.

A decade later, he was beaten and stabbed to death by a vengeful group of republicans whilst out for a walk.

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