Mixed unionist views on Joe Biden visit to Northern Ireland - from uncritical UUP welcome to TUV denunciation

The US president revealed on Monday night that he intends to pay a trip to both Northern Ireland and the Republic, after being invited by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Although the US Consulate tells the News Letter that the dates have yet to be determined, there have been rumours that the visit could be in mid-April, shortly after the 25th anniversary of the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement has passed (Good Friday 2023 falls on April 7, but the actual date of the signing in 1998 was April 10).

It is expected he will be invited to speak at Stormont.

The DUP’s Gregory Campbell told the BBC that he welcomed the visit, but added: “The only slight cautionary note I would make is that neither Downing Street nor the White House should try and use a visit by the president to try and pressurise people into some sort of move on political issues.

“That would not only be an unfortunate use of the president’s visit but could severely rebound on those who might try that.”

Meanwhile Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said that, when it comes to making a decision on whether to resume power-sharing at Stormont, “whether the president visits or not, I have no arbitrary deadline here… however long that takes is how long it will take”.

The UUP meanwhile told the News Letter: "The 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement will be an important milestone for Northern Ireland.

"The Agreement brought peace to our communities and greatly reduced the devastating loss of life.

"The UUP will always welcome visits to Northern Ireland from global leaders, not least Joe Biden as head of the world's largest national economy.

"We'd prefer it even more however if there were a fully functioning Executive and Assembly for him to visit."

Meanwhile TUV leader Jim Allister dubbed Mr Biden “an avowed nationalist partisan”.

He pointed to the president’s past record on paramilitary extradition, 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”.

The article contained a copy of a letter written by Mr Biden in 1985, in which Mr Biden voiced scepticism about efforts to change the treaty so Mr Doherty could be removed to Northern Ireland, saying it would “re-write our entire approach to the question of extradition and the definition of political offence”.

Mr Allister also noted that Mr Biden had backed the Protocol, and had “likened the struggle of the Palestinian people to Britain’s treatment of Irish Catholics”.

This is a reference to comments from last summer, when Mr Biden declared: “My background and the background of my family is Irish American, and we have a long history of – not fundamentally unlike the Palestinian people with Great Britain and their attitude toward Irish Catholics over the years, for 400 years.”

The UN found that in the year 2014 alone, Israeli actions killed some 1,462 civilians in the Gaza Strip (with six civilians in Israel and 67 Israeli soldiers also killed).

Throughout the whole of the Troubles from 1969 to 2001, the number of Catholic civilians killed by UK security services was about 162 (according to CAIN).

“Little wonder he wants to celebrate the terrorism-rewarding Belfast Agreement and try further pressure on unionists to operate the Protocol’s dismantling of the Union and partitioning of the United Kingdom,” said Mr Allister.

“I find nothing to celebrate in the mass release of murderers, the ushering of terrorists into government and the imposition of an unworkable system at Stormont - all the handiwork of the Belfast Agreement. But from the perspective of an avid all-Irelander like Biden a milestone of achievement.”