LEO MCKINSTRY: Joe Biden is so pro-Irish his secret service name is ‘Celtic’

Growing up in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s, I always feared that peace would never come to my homeland.

But the Good Friday Agreement, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this week, has defied the cynics and pessimists.

Today, however, there are signs that it is fraying.

Paramilitary extremists, made up of loyalist and republican dissidents, continue to operate.

In February, Detective Superintendent John Caldwell suffered life-changing injuries after being shot in front of his own son: a full month after the attack, his condition is said to be ‘critical but stable’.

The official terror threat level was recently raised from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’.

This uneasy background is, of course, compounded by the continued failure of the power-sharing executive at Stormont, a centerpiece of the Good Friday Agreement.

Partisan

The situation cries out for leaders with wisdom, courage and empathy. But these are, unfortunately, hardly any traits that we can apply to Joe Biden.

As Air Force One lands in Belfast today to attend the anniversary commemoration, the mood is tense.

Democracy in Northern Ireland is at stake and there could hardly be a more unfit figure than this lanky octogenarian to keep it afloat. Visibly in the throes of physical and mental decline, Biden is also far too partisan to be the honest broker the region needs.

Instead, he seems bizarrely obsessed with his distant Irish roots and seems to have swallowed the Republican movement’s propaganda about British “oppression” en masse. Biden has a wealth of English ancestry but prefers to ignore this fact.

Instead, he introduces himself as the great-great-grandson of the Blewitts of County Mayo and the Finnegans of County Louth who, as the proudest son of this clan puts it today, “went aboard coffin ships more than 165 years ago to to cross the Atlantic Ocean’. .

Towards the mystic, Biden has stated, “It’s been kind of part of my soul for as long as I can remember.”

Even today, his secret service code name is “Celtic.”

Victimization and tribalism come easily to him. During a visit to Israel last year, Biden compared the Irish to the Palestinians while being asked during his 2020 bid for the White House if he could have a “quick chat” with the BBC.

“The BBC?” he exclaimed before adding, as if it mattered, “I’m Irish!”

Not that this has stopped the blunder-prone president from sometimes stooping to unfortunate racial stereotypes.

In a speech last year, Biden said, “I may be Irish, but I’m not stupid.” He then confused his own wife’s father with her grandfather.

One St. Patrick’s Day, as vice president, he announced, “Nobody wearing orange is welcome in my house.”

Perhaps because of these clearly biased views, the “special relationship” between Britain and America seems to mean little to him.

The chances of a major US-UK trade deal, which Trump had previously praised, were dealt a serious blow when Biden entered the White House.

In 2016, Barack Obama, under whom Biden was vice president, infamously told Britain that it would be “back of the line” negotiating trade deals in the event of a Brexit. Biden seems to have taken the same dismissive approach.

Not even Rishi Sunak’s Windsor Framework, which has reset trade ties with the EU, and Britain’s new membership of the Pacific-focused CPTPP trade bloc seem to have failed to revive the prospect.

‘Uncle Joe’ will be all smiles at Sunak tonight in Belfast, but a true transatlantic economic partnership remains a distant dream. Biden’s emphasis on his heritage, in part, reflects the deep ties between his Democratic party and the Irish community in America.

The president considers himself the heir to the progressive mantle of John F. Kennedy, the only other Catholic to reach the White House.

But the problem with Biden is that his embrace of his Irishness seems to be accompanied by a simplistic view of history and a deep-seated antipathy towards the English.

Part of that attitude apparently stems from his mother Catherine Finnegan, known as Jean, who hated all things English.

British writer Georgia Pritchett recalls meeting at the White House with Biden, who told her that his mother had “written several poems about her hatred of the English.” He went looking for them and came back with hundreds of poems describing how God must strike the English and make blood rain on our heads.’

The Good Friday Agreement was all about ending conflict, but Biden seems to be boasting in discord. When asked about his political hero, he usually mentions Wolfe Tone, the 18th-century Irish Protestant who led a rebellion against British rule.

voiced

Likewise, he likes to proclaim that one of his great-grandparents, Edward Blewitt, was a member of the “Molly Maguires,” a violent secret society of Irish migrant miners in Pennsylvania.

After first being elected senator in 1972, when the Troubles reached their blood-soaked climax, Biden has repeatedly expressed his support for the Irish cause.

In 1985, with British authorities heavily engaged in their long campaign against the IRA — whose terror operations were funded in part by Irish-American supporters through the sinister Noraid organization (the Irish Northern Aid Committee) — Biden ran for Delaware as a senator. a treaty with Britain that would have allowed the extradition of IRA terror suspects from the US

He told his fellow legislators, “If we ratify this treaty, we are admitting that the justice system is fair – an idea I absolutely abhor.”

The sound bite may have been lost to the families of the approximately 1,700 people killed by the IRA, including more than 500 civilians. Thanks to Biden’s influence, the treaty was heavily watered down.

To be clear, Biden’s views on Ireland are entirely a political choice.

Bill Clinton, his Democratic predecessor, took a much more reasonable view.

Laughable

It was Clinton, of course, who probably played the central role in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement, through his intellectual understanding of policy, his knowledge of current events, his gift for reconciling opposing viewpoints, and his ability to to gain confidence on all sides. including the initially suspected Ulster Unionists led by David Trimble.

Clinton’s charisma and communication skills were also central to winning public support for the deal.

My brother heard him speak in Belfast in 1998 and said to me, ‘It was the most moving oratorio I’ve ever heard.’

For all their shortcomings, both Bill and, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton have demonstrated an abiding commitment to Northern Ireland. Hillary is today Chancellor of Queen’s University, Belfast.

The idea of ​​Biden having such an impact is laughable.

The world has become a more unstable place with him as president.

Where dynamism is needed, he has created a vacuum. Where we need inspiration, he has left only embarrassment.

Referring to a branch of his relatives, Biden said, “The Finnegans adore their Irish grudges and are not quick to let one go.”

He can enjoy such grievances with blinders. But it’s an approach that could one day cost terribly.