Biden will visit Ireland next week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement

The White House announced Wednesday morning that President Joe Biden will visit Ireland next week to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

He flies to Belfast in Northern Ireland on Tuesday and south to Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, a day later.

Biden has spoken enthusiastically about his plans to visit the land of his ancestors as president and the planning has been in the works for weeks.

His family hails from County Louth in the east of the country and County Mayo in the west, and his trip will include both visits, as he did when he last visited in 2016.

Next week’s four-day visit is one of the worst-kept secrets of the year, and both provinces have prepared for his return.

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary, said: “He will discuss our close collaboration across the full range of shared global challenges.

“He will also make several appearances, including in Dublin, County Louth and County Mayo, where he will deliver a speech celebrating the deep, historic ties that bind our countries and people together.”

Local media reported that the highlight is expected to be a speech to be delivered at a venue outside St. Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo.

It was from Ballina that Biden’s maternal great-great-great-grandfather, Edward Blewitt, left for America after the potato famine of the 1840s, settling in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Biden often riffs on his Irish heritage and had made it known that he wanted to visit as president.

However, bickering between the United Kingdom and the European Union over Northern Ireland’s trading status caused a diplomatic deadlock that would have made a high-profile presidential visit politically problematic.

That obstacle was removed last month with a deal for a new mechanism for handling goods shipped from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland.

It means Biden can now visit both the North and South to celebrate the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

President Joe Biden said a higher terror alert level in Northern Ireland would make little difference to plans for a visit. “They can’t keep me out,” he said

Biden arrived in County Mayo in 2016 on his last official visit to Ireland. The then Vice President spent six days in the country visiting Dublin, Mayo and Louth

Biden with Enda Kenny in Dublin in 2016 on his latest visit to Ireland, which was part official and part personal – as were plans for his visit next week

The agreement was signed on 10 April 1998. It cemented Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and established a new county government, while allowing it to join the Republic of Ireland if that is the wish of a majority used to be.

It ended 30 years of armed struggle against British rule, a period known as ‘the Troubles’.

Biden is one of several US politicians who can claim a role in pushing through the deal. He was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that urged the Clinton administration to use its political leverage and broker the deal.

His Irish heritage has been a frequent touchstone for his political speeches, and he has described how his family left their homeland ‘because of what the British did’.

Last year, on St. Patrick’s Day, he explained what his Irish heritage gave him and other Irish emigrants.

“Hope has produced a nation of poets and patriots, saints, scholars, artists and engineers on the Emerald Isle,” he said at the White House.

“Hope made us look to the distant horizon. It spurs us over every obstacle. It tells us to try again when we fall short, to get up every time we fall.”

Joe Blewitt and his wife Deirdre drink champagne under a mural of their third cousin Joe Biden as locals celebrate Biden’s election in the 2020 County Mayo town of Ballina

Biden with restaurant staff outside Fitzpatrick’s Restaurant and Pub after a family lunch, in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, during his 2016 visit

Biden last visited Ireland in an official capacity in 2016 as vice president. That visit included stops in Dublin, Mayo and Louth.

And he has repeatedly told Irish politicians and relatives that he will return as president.

Shortly after taking office, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin said, “When I invited President Biden to Ireland, he just said, ‘Try to keep me out of it.’ So he won’t lack enthusiasm.’

There were repeated rumors in the Irish media that a presidential visit was imminent.

And diplomats saw the 25th anniversary of the peace deal as the perfect time.

Last week brought a small ripple as Northern Ireland raised its terror risk level from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’.

But Biden told DailyMail.com it wouldn’t make a difference.

“They can’t keep me out,” he said.