As he signed the visitor’s log, Joe Biden remarks that the Irish president’s official house “looks just like the White House.”
Before presenting the message he left, he writes for a while.
He reads aloud, “As the Irish proverb says, your feet will get you where your heart is.
“I talk about going back to the place where my ancestors lived to celebrate the things that unite Ireland and the United States, and recommit ourselves to peace, equity, and – I think the most Irish of words used in my family was – dignity.”
Looking around, the president says “this is an incredible place”.
“It’s wonderful to be back,” says Mr Biden, on his third visit but his first as president.
Joe Biden meets Irish president
Joe Biden has met the Irish president in Pheonix Park, Dublin.
Arriving at Aras an Uachtarain, he emerged wearing sunglasses and a broad smile as he walked the red carpet to be met by Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabine.
He was taken to the drawing room to meet Tanaiste Micheal Martin and Ireland’s secretary-general to the president, Orla O’Hanrahan
The two presidents are set to have a private meeting for around half an hour, plant a tree in the grounds – as other US leaders have done before Mr Biden – and ring the Peace Bell.
The US premier arrived in the Beast, considered a fortress on wheels, alongside a motorcade.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and other members of the US delegation accompanied him.
Visit ‘won’t change DUP minds’ on returning to Northern Irish Assembly
Joe Biden’s visit is unlikely to have any impact on getting the Northern Ireland Assembly back up and running, a political expert has said.
Power to restore Stormont lies ultimately “in the hands of the DUP”, who have boycotted it, said research associate at the University of Liverpool, Clare Rice.
Dr Rice said the party is of the opinion that the president’s visit “will not do anything” to “encourage or speed up the rate at which they will take a decision”.
Looking ahead to Mr Biden’s engagements today, she said Mr Biden would likely focus on peace as a way of fostering Irish-American relationships.
She said his speech at Ulster University was largely a success, being “broadly well received right across the community.”
He will likely continue to discuss his own Irish identity, as he has done throughout the visit, said Dr Rice.
Biden to plant tree at president’s home, securing further ‘Irish roots’
By Ashna Hurynag, news correspondent, in Dublin
Almost 60 years since JFK visited the Irish president’s official residence, Joe Biden will do the same – keen to stress he has the most roots in the country of any recent US leader.
In the grounds of Áras an Uachtaráin, Dublin, the trees planted by Kennedy and, most recently, Barack Obama stand tall; all different varieties of Irish Oak.
Today Joe Biden will plant another one in a ceremony with President Michael D Higgins, before ringing the Peace Bell.
The Bell was installed to mark the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2008.
Purported major US intelligence leak on Ukraine ‘did not come up’ in meeting with Sunak
Documents posted online purported to be leaked US intelligence on the war in Ukraine were not discussed in talks between Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak.
The White House press secretary said the subject of a major Pentagon investigation “did not come up”.
Among the trove of records, one seen by Sky News alleges that UK special forces were in Ukraine on 1 March 2023.
The Ministry of Defence has previously said there was “a serious level of inaccuracy” in this claim.
Sky News cannot independently verify the documents, and several nations, including Ukraine and Russia, have questioned their veracity.
For context: Documents were published in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers, labelled as secret Pentagon material on Ukraine.
If accurate, potentially hundreds have been leaked and the US doesn’t know if more will surface as it investigates who is behind the information.
White House responds to Biden’s ‘Black and Tans’ gaffe
The White House has said it was “very clear” to Irish rugby fans that Joe Biden was referring to the All Blacks New Zealand team when he mistakenly referenced “the Black and Tans”.
The president appeared to confuse the name of the team with a War of Independence-era police force in Ireland during a speech yesterday.
Asked if he realised his mistake, National Security Council senior director Amanda Sloat said: “It was clear what the president was referring to, it was certainly clear to his cousins sitting next to him.”
Mr Biden was standing near former Irish rugby international and distant relative Rob Kearney, who was a member of the team that famously beat the All Blacks for the first time in 2016.
The Black and Tans was a name for part-time officers recruited to bolster the Royal Irish Constabulary, many of whom gained a violent reputation.
For context: The president said Rob Kearney was “a hell of a rugby player, and beat the Black and Tans” while speaking in a Co Louth pub.
War in Ukraine ‘high on agenda’ for talks with Irish leaders
The war in Ukraine will be “high on the agenda” when Joe Biden meets with Irish leaders today, a top US official has said.
National Security Council senior director Amanda Sloat said the conflict would be a priority in talks with Irish President Michael D Higgins and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar “given Ireland’s participation in various aspects of US support for Ukraine”.
Ireland has contributed nearly £68m (€77m) in military support for Ukraine, an aid package worth £17.5m (€20m) and another £22m (€25m) in government and business sector assistance as of 31 January, according Micheál Martinto, its minister for foreign affairs.
Ms Sloat said Mr Biden’s address to the Irish parliament will refer to areas of close partnership between both countries and “setting out a shared vision for the future”.
‘Nervousness’ as officials pray Biden sticks to the script in parliament
There is “nervousness” among officials in Ireland at the prospect of another gaffe from the US president, after he appeared to confuse a New Zealand rugby team with a British paramilitary group, said international affairs editor Dominic Waghorn.
They are “hoping he sticks to the script” as he addresses the Irish parliament today following the offhand comment, in which Mr Biden paid tribute to a rugby player for beating the “Black and Tans” rather than the All Blacks, Waghorn said.
He explained a gaffe-free day of diplomacy was important because “it is a particularly sensitive, precarious time, of course, for politics in Northern Ireland”.
Waghorn added: “He’s made a number of those comments which I think have reinforced in the eyes and minds of many in Northern Ireland that he is nationalist, he’s too pro-Irish.”
But Mr Biden made the opposite impression when he went off-cue to talk about his English heritage during a speech to Ulster University yesterday, he said.
Indeed, former UK ambassador to the US Lord Darroch told Sky News that though the president sometimes misspeaks, “I remain convinced that he is a friend of the UK”.
Boycott of president’s parliament speech today condemned – despite foreign policy concerns
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald has said it would be wrong to boycott Joe Biden’s address to both houses of the Irish parliament today.
People Before Profit (SPBP), which has five members in the lower house, will boycott the speech over objections to his foreign policy.
Mrs McDonald said she shares concerns about the US record in Iraq and Afghanistan, but stressed that closer to home there “wouldn’t have been a peace process without America”.
On RTE Radio 1’s Morning Ireland programme, she said of SPBP’s decision: “I think that’s the wrong choice.”
Asked if she shared left-wing criticisms of US foreign policy, she said: “I very much doubt that anybody in the American administration is unaware of the wide criticism of many of their foreign policy stances.”
What is the fallout from Biden’s ‘Black and Tans’ gaffe?
He was paying tribute to his distant cousin in a pub, the former Irish rugby international Rob Kearney.
Mr Kearney was a member of the Irish team that famously beat New Zealand’s All Blacks for the first time ever, in a 2016 match played in Chicago
President Biden, who played rugby himself as a student, said that Rob Kearney was “a hell of a rugby player, and beat the Black and Tans”, thus confusing New Zealand’s famous team with the reviled British paramilitary force the Black and Tans, who brutally repressed opponents of British rule during the Irish War of Independence.
Most infamously, the force massacred 14 people and wounded 60 more at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park in Dublin in 1920.
It seemed an obvious slip of the tongue, rather than anything intentional.
It had all been going so well, says Ireland correspondent Stephen Murphy in his full analysis…
Biden to address Irish parliament in first for a US president since peace deal
Joe Biden’s visit to the island of Ireland continues today, south of the border.
The president is in Dublin, where he is expected to address a joint session of the Irish parliament – the first US premier to do so since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.
He will spend most of the day with Irish President Michael D Higgins, who is hosting Mr Biden at his official residence, Aras an Uachtarain.
The pair will take part in a tree-planting ceremony and a ringing of the Peace Bell, first unveiled 15 years ago to mark the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who visited the White House on St Patrick’s Day, will then begin talks with Mr Biden.
But his address to parliament will be the main event today – that’s the first time we’ll hear him speak.
The last president to make a speech in the Irish legislature was Bill Clinton in 1995.
A banquet in Mr Biden’s honour at Dublin Castle will be the last item on his agenda today. He is expected to give a toast.
As you can see, barriers have been erected at the castle and the heavy security operation that has followed the US president on this trip will continue today…
Good morning – here’s the latest
It has been a busy couple of days for President Joe Biden who landed in Belfast on Tuesday evening for the start of a historic four-day visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland.
The visit marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and has seen the US leader, 80, pay homage to his Irish roots.
We’ll be bringing you live updates as the president embarks on another busy day but here is a rundown of the key events from yesterday…
- Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak met at the Grand Central Hotel in Belfast;
- The US president urged a return to power sharing in Stormont during a speech at Ulster University;
- The leader of the DUP insisted Mr Biden’s visit “did not change the political dynamic” in Northern Ireland;
- Mr Biden arrived in Co Louth, where his Irish ancestors once lived, and delivered at speech the The Windsor pub – which sits at the centre of Dundalk;
- Police said four devices discovered in a cemetery in Londonderry were “viable” pipe bombs.
That’s all for our coverage tonight
We’ll be back tomorrow morning with more updates on Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Tomorrow, Mr Biden will meet with Michael D. Higgins, the Irish president.
He will also address the Irish Parliament and is set to attend a banquet dinner at Dublin Castle.
We can expect Biden’s comments to remain more rigidly to script tomorrow
By Stephen Murphy, Ireland correspondent
It had all been going so well.
The serious political business of the day dispensed with, Joe Biden left Belfast and broke for the border.
Arriving for the first day of ancestral exploration in Co Louth, he was taken on a tour of Carlingford Castle, the last sight his great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan would have seen in 1849 as he sailed away to a new life in America.
The rain sheeted down, the cold was something from the depths of winter. And yet, the 80-year-old president exuded an energy of a much younger man, beaming from beneath his baseball cap as he arrived in Dundalk.
Traditionally a staunchly republican border town, he wound up at a bar improbably called The Windsor.
Here, in relaxed mood, he spoke from the heart, and apparently off the cuff. And that’s where the gaffe came from. He was paying tribute to his distant cousin in the room, the former Irish rugby international Rob Kearney.
Kearney was a member of the Irish team that famously beat New Zealand’s All Blacks for the first time ever, in a 2016 match played in Chicago.
President Biden, who played rugby himself as a student, said that Rob Kearney was “a hell of a rugby player, and beat the Black and Tans”, thus confusing New Zealand’s famous team with the reviled British paramilitary force the Black and Tans, who brutally repressed opponents of British rule during the Irish War of Independence.
Most infamously, the force massacred 14 people and wounded 60 more at a Gaelic football match at Croke Park in Dublin in 1920.
It seemed an obvious slip of the tongue, rather than anything intentional. But here you had a US president often accused by unionists of being rabidly republican, apparently bragging about his family beating the British. In that context, the remark was deeply unfortunate.
President Biden continues on a more familiar political path tomorrow, meeting with the Irish president and prime minister, and addressing the Irish parliament. We can expect his comments there to remain more rigidly to script.
Biden’s visit to Dundalk in pictures
Joe Biden shook hands and took selfies with excited locals in Dundalk as he continued with his four-day visit of Northern Ireland and Ireland today.
Screams and cheers erupted in the town’s main street as the huge presidential motorcade rolled into the Co Louth town on a drizzly, grey and windy Wednesday evening.
Despite the weather, crowds lined the town’s main street to catch a glimpse of the US leader, who wore a navy baseball cap bearing the American flag as he emerged from The Beast.
Mr Biden, whose grandfather James Finnegan was born in Co Louth, spoke fondly of his Irish roots with the owner of a local deli and said it “feels like home” as he spoke to an assembled audience at a pub.
Here, are just a few pictures from the day…
‘Ireland breeds faith and possibilities’
During his speech to assembled crowds earlier, President Joe Biden described how his and former president Barack Obama’s ancestors were shoemakers from Ireland.
He said: “It’s doubtful they knew each other and they came out of the same port but one thing we do know is that they left everything behind
“They had faith. They had faith in an uncertain future. I’m not sure they could have imagined that 175 years later both their great-great grandsons would be presidents of the USA.
“That’s what you breed here. This faith and the possibilities that are out there.”
Peace deal architect praises Biden’s power sharing plea
An architect of the Good Friday Agreement has said Joe Biden struck the tone right in his speech today encouraging a return to power sharing in Northern Ireland.
Jonathan Powell, former chief of staff to Tony Blair, said Mr Biden was right to appeal to keep the peace rather than berate the DUP, which is boycotting the Northern Irish Assembly.
But the address at Ulster University is not going to be what “clinches it” because his visit is not a negotiating one, Mr Powell said.
“It was a symbolic visit, I think it was important he came. I think he struck the right note: He wasn’t bullying anyone, he wasn’t hectoring anyone, he was just appealing to people to keep the peace going, to get back into the institutions,” said Mr Powell.
He said the president looked to the future, rather than the troubled past, and pointed out the benefits of American investment, which will only come with political stability.
Xi Jinping gets unexpected mention in Biden’s pub speech
After reminiscing about his Irish ancestry, Joe Biden’s speech in a pub in the small town of Dundalk takes an unexpected turn towards the geopolitical.
Almost out of nowhere, he brings up Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.
“I’ve spent more time with him than any other world leader has over the last 10 years,” he says.
And then recalls a story….
“I was once on the Tibetan plateau with him,” he says.
“He asked me ‘Can you define America for me?’ and I said ‘Yes I can. One word – possibilities.”
He then says he “believes anything is possible if you set your mind to it”.
Mr Biden also says the world is facing “darkness” but people must keep “marching forward”.
He ends his speech by thanking those who have come to see him and jokes: “The bad news is we will be back.”
‘The best drop of blood in you is Irish’: Biden speaks in pub
“It feels like home,” Joe Biden says as he takes to a podium in a pub in Dundalk.
“When you’re here you wonder why anyone would want to leave, so it’s good to be back.”
He says his grandfather used to tell him “the best drop of blood in you is Irish” to laughs from the crowd gathered inside.
He entertains guests in the pub with tales of his distant Irish relatives and how important the heritage has always been within his family.
“Hope is what beats in the heart of all people, particularly in the heart of the Irish,” he says.
“My message to you today is quite simple: We have to continue to keep the faith.”
He tells the audience we must “face darkness” and work towards a future of “greater dignity”.