Biden recommits to Good Friday accord on St. Patrick’s Day
WASHINGTON » President Joe Biden marked St. Patrick’s Day on Wednesday by recommitting the U.S. to the Good Friday Agreement, which has come under increasing stress following the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.
Biden, the latest president of Irish descent, held a virtual meeting with Ireland’s prime minister, Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Before the meeting, the president attended a morning Mass at the aptly named St. Patrick’s Church near his family home in Wilmington, Delaware, then returned to the White House to partake in the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, which were toned down due to the coronavirus pandemic. In keeping with recent tradition, the water in fountains outside the White House ran green for the day.
Biden and Martin’s virtual bilateral meeting — Biden’s third with a foreign leader since he took office eight weeks ago — included the presentation of an engraved bowl of shamrocks, which was sent ahead to Washington. It ensured that a tradition that began in 1952 continued uninterrupted, if modified by COVID-19 concerns.
Biden also dropped in on Vice President Kamala Harris’ virtual meeting with Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill in a show of support for the Good Friday Agreement.
Signed in 1998, the Good Friday Agreement helped end sectarian violence that had raged for three decades over the issue of Northern Ireland unifying with Ireland or remaining part of the U.K.
Biden told Martin that it is “critically important” that the Good Friday Agreement be maintained.