London
"Your feet will take you to where your heart is."
With this sentence, inscribed Thursday in the guestbook of the Irish presidential palace, the American president, Joe Biden, summed up his visit to the island of Ireland.
He was expected in Northern Ireland to ease the tensions between Republicans and Unionists born of Brexit, a task he took to heart after having followed the file for almost three years.
In the Republic of Ireland, his forty-eight-hour stay will mainly be about supporting peace, twenty-five years after the Good Friday Agreement, and returning to his Irish roots.
After leaving Belfast in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday, he went directly with his son and sister to the town of Carlingford, where part of his family is from, who then emigrated to the United States. in the middle of the 19th century.
Accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister,
"It's alright, it's Ireland!"
), before launching to the Irish in heaven:
“Coming here is like coming home!”
This playful tone, this visible good humor continued on Thursday.
After ringing the peace bell four times, installed in the presidential gardens in 2008, he announced with a smile to his host, Irish President Michael Higgins, that he "did not intend to return" to the United States
as
he felt good in Dublin.
Even if the journalists present brought him back to a much less pleasant reality, by questioning him about the recent leak of confidential documents from the Pentagon.
“I am concerned that these leaks took place, but I have not heard of contemporary information concerning them”
, he soberly commented.
Establish “a common vision”
His meeting with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar seems to have gone just as positively.
The two leaders talked about Northern Ireland, although his host reminded that
“the United States has mainly a supporting role, it is up to the five parties of Northern Ireland and the two governments to settle this question. by the end of the year”
.
Other topics discussed, Ukraine and the relationship between Ireland and the United States with the desire to establish a
"common vision for the future"
.
A theme widely taken up during his speech to the Irish Parliament, only the fourth for an American president.
As Leo Varadkar recalled, American investment in Ireland
“has transformed our economy over the past twenty years”
.
New technology companies, such as Amazon and Apple, have created tens of thousands of skilled jobs in the country.
An abundance that Northern Ireland would no doubt have liked to take advantage of, after thirty years of conflict.
Joe Biden will return to the United States on Friday evening.
Previously, he will deliver a final speech in the early evening at St. Muredach's Cathedral in Ballina, built in 1828 with the help of 27,000 bricks sold by his grandfather.
An astonishing and very personal final stage, for a decidedly very special visit for Joe the Irishman.
