US, Irish ties hailed in Biden address

United States President Joe Biden addressed a joint sitting on both houses of Ireland's Parliament on Thursday as his visit to the island continued.

After arriving in Northern Ireland on Tuesday, he held talks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and gave a speech at Ulster University, but the current non-functionality of the province's devolved assembly at Stormont denied him the chance to speak to its elected political leaders.

His stay across the border in the Republic of Ireland has been more high-profile and more personal, including visits to towns where he has ancestral roots, and also becoming the fourth US president — after John F Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton — to address its elected representatives.

He followed in their footsteps, and also those of former US president Barack Obama, by planting a tree in the grounds of the Irish presidential residence in Dublin's Phoenix Park, before holding talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

Afterwards, Varadkar said relations between the two countries were better than ever, and described Biden's position on helping maintain the Northern Ireland peace process as being keen to be supportive but not overbearing.

Biden's trip has coincided with the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that halted decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, which also had a major impact on Ireland and mainland Britain, but which is currently under political strain.

In his speech, Biden echoed Varadkar's comments, speaking of the "enduring" strength of ties between the countries, and promising "a future poised for unlimited shared possibilities".He also said the nations'shared values in their past pointed the way towards a more optimistic future. "As nations we've known hardship and division but also found solace in one another…it's not hyperbole — it's a fact," he added. "It's not just the hope but conviction better days lie ahead."

In contrast to his visit to Northern Ireland, which was perceived as diplomatically delicate because of domestic political issues, and the still-unresolved position of Northern Ireland in a post-Brexit world, Biden's time in the Republic of Ireland has been more personal and warmer.

BBC political editor Chris Mason said the "shift in tone and mood was unmistakable",with Biden saying "it feels like I'm coming home", when he visited the town of Dundalk in County Louth, on Ireland's east coast.

Mason contrasted this with the "tightrope of Northern Ireland politics" that Biden had to walk, and also the fact that Sunak was not present at his one public appearance in the north, with the far more relaxed air around his time in the republic.

Those around the US president will hope that he stuck to his prepared script for such a high-profile speech, rather than improvising, after an embarrassing slip of the tongue earlier in his visit.

Talking about the Ireland rugby team's victory over New Zealand, whose team are known as the All Blacks, he referred to them as the Black and Tans — the name of a notoriously brutal police unit deployed in Ireland in the early part of the 20th century during the country's War of Independence.