Irish Biden tells Belfast crowd about his ENGLISH ancestor from the 19th Century

After years of anti-British jokes, President Joe Biden touted his connections to England during a visit to the Northern Island on Wednesday as he attempted to walk a tightrope through Belfast’s sectarian politics.

Pro-London union leaders accused the famously pro-Irish president of sidelining their views when he arrived to mark the 25th anniversary of a peace deal that ended years of violence between the two sides.

Biden used a peace speech to justify his British roots for once.

He described how a previous British ambassador to Washington had presented him with a book that showed a British officer in his room with a bulldog in the 19th century.

“And his name was Captain George Biden,” the president said, describing how his ancestor had written the Royal Navy’s rules on mutinies.

The ambassador, he added, ‘always made fun of me…he would say why are you talking about the Irish. He said you’re English, remember?’

He said that Robinette – a family name – may have originally come from France, but if his own family name arrived via relatives from Nottingham, England

“So I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.

It was a marked change for Biden as he travels to the Republic of Ireland to visit two counties where his ancestors once lived.

Previous officials had to fend off allegations that his history of talking out his Irish ties meant he was anti-British.

That’s a hot topic in Northern Ireland, which has been torn apart by violence, as mostly Catholic Republicans fought for the right to unite with the Republic of Ireland, while mostly Protestant Loyalists fought to be part of the United Kingdom.

The 1998 Good Friday Good Friday Agreement ended decades of fighting known as ‘the Troubles’.

But Biden arrived amid a political deadlock with hardline unionists refusing to allow a power-sharing government to operate.

They were suspicious of Biden’s intentions and accused him of being anti-British.

He once jokingly refused to speak to a BBC reporter because he was Irish, and has offended Protestants in the province by suggesting that anyone wearing orange should not be welcome at St Patrick’s Day Celebrations. (Protestants identify themselves with the color orange.)

The result was demands from the unions that Biden not get involved in local politics.

As Ian Paisley Jr., of the hardline Democratic Unionist Party, put it on TalkTV, “the poor chap is unfortunately quite prone to blunders,” adding, “It would be like a Frenchman coming up to you and telling you what you England must do. .’

They were already wary of any hint of bias.

But most of Biden’s speech was a celebration of how the peace deal had transformed Belfast from war-torn to booming.

“You can’t have a glass building like that in this area,” he said in Ulster University’s new building.

“I don’t think I think it wouldn’t have looked very good. But things change.’

He said it was essential that new generations remember the hard work of making peace.

“It is an incredible testament to the power and possibilities of peace… 25 years ago this week, the historic Belfast Good Friday Agreement was signed. and it wasn’t easy.

And he cautiously reneged on any suggestion that he was pushing one side or the other to break the deadlock.

“So I hope that the Assembly and the Executive will be restored soon,” he said. “That’s a judgment for you to make, not me. But I hope it happens.’

Earlier, officials were asked if it was fair to say the famed Irish-American president was anti-British

“I think the president’s record shows he’s not anti-British,” she said during a briefing with reporters.

However, Biden has a history of making anti-English jokes and has often described his mother’s animosity towards the UK and its crown.

Sloat cited examples of cooperation between the Biden administration and London.

“The UK remains one of our strongest and closest allies,” she said.

And frankly it’s hard to think of an issue in the world that we don’t work closely with the British on and so this morning the president wanted the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Sunak to start his day in this . Belfast.’

The brevity of his stay in Northern Ireland has irritated local leaders, who question whether it is part of a strategy to minimize the likelihood of blunders.

And with just 17 hours in Belfast before departing on a genealogical tour of Ireland, Sloat was asked if the visit was really a taxpayer-funded family reunion.

“I would, not surprisingly, challenge that characterization,” she said icily, before listing appointments with the British Prime Minister and official events to mark the Good Friday-Belfast Agreement.

The Northern Ireland government has not sat for almost a year amid a row over post-Brexit trade arrangements.

Although trade rules have been reformed, the Democratic Unionist Party refuses to go back to power-sharing institutions.

The standoff takes some of the shine off the visit, which began a day after Republican youths clashed with police in Derry.

Biden arrived in Belfast in a major police operation, the largest in the province in the past 10 years.

Some 300 officers have been called up from elsewhere in the UK to bolster the numbers, at a total cost of £7 million (approximately $8.7 million).

Biden previously wrote on Twitter: “25 years ago Northern Ireland’s leaders chose peace.

The Belfast-Good Friday deal ended decades of violence and brought stability. I look forward to celebrating the anniversary in Belfast and underlining the US’s commitment to keeping the peace and promoting prosperity.”