It what is being seen as a ploy to play up to the Irish vote in the U.S., President Joe Biden will not be attending the May 6th coronation of King Charles III in London. London is denying this is a snub, however Biden will surely hope his Irish electorate will see it that way with presidential elections looming on the horizon.
Instead the octogenarian will be visiting Northern Ireland where he will likely meet with former terrorist leaders – a stunt that always goes down particularly well with the electorates in New York City and Boston.
Biden is pictured here – whilst on the campaign trail in September 2017 – with Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein leader and former(?) IRA Army Council chief, and the notorious IRA fugitive the late Rita O’Hare.
O’Hare was a former the General Secretary of Sinn Féin, and from 1998 to 2023 the party’s representative to the United States.
She was arrested in Northern Ireland in 1972 for the attempted murder of British Army Warrant Officer Frazer Paton in Belfast in October 1971. She also faced malicious wounding and possession of firearms charges.
She served a three-year sentence in Limerick Prison for smuggling explosives to an IRA member and was released in 1979
Biden is not the only U.S. Democrat to lay down with dogs in order to attract the Irish vote.
In March 1998 the terrorist leader was invited to the White House for a photo opportunity with then President Bill Clinton who once, on a visit to the Irish Republic told Boston Globe reporter Jack Farrell “I’ve always been conscious of being Irish, I mean, I’m sort of – I look Irish, I am Irish.”
Clinton’s father was in fact of Anglo-Scottish descent, his mother is not known to have had Irish blood.
Barack Obama also understood the value of a good Irish photo-op. Here he is seen with Gerry Adams, and has also been photographed with Rita O’Hare.Adams indeed had a seat at Obama’s inauguration in 2009 courtesy of the Friends of Ireland Group in the U.S. Congress.
The group was founded by prominent Irish-American politicians, including Edward Kennedy whose brother John and Bobby were also known to court the Irish vote.
In fact, their father Joseph Kennedy, a former U.S. Ambassador to the UK, was also a staunch supporter of Irish Republicanism.
In March 2016 Adams received an invitation to attend a St. Patrick’s Day lunch at the White House. Although the circumstances have never been fully explained, Adams was refused entry by the Secret Service. Sinn Féinn’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald and the North’s deputy first minister Martin McGuinness – himself a member of the IRA Army Council – were reportedly allowed to enter the event.
The Troubles.
During “The Troubles”, the terrorist campaign waged by the IRA and other minor Republican and Loyalist groups from the late 1960’s to 1998, 3,532 people were killed, with the majority being civilians. It has been noted that the IRA was responsible for the deaths of more Catholics than the British Army, the Police, and Loyalist para-militaries combined.
In excess of 45,000 people were injured during the period.
The British military presence in Northern Ireland was known as ‘Operation Banner’, and ran from14 August 1969 – 31 July 2007 (37 years, 11 months, 2 weeks and 3 days) making it the longest single operation in British military history.
Despite celebrations in Brussels and elsewhere (the European Commission appears, bizarrely, to be taking credit for the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement) the gangs are still active and the terrorist threat remains high.
On March 28th Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Chris Heaton-Harris, announced that the Northern Ireland-related Terrorism threat level in Northern Ireland has been raised from SUBSTANTIAL to SEVERE.
The decision to change the threat level is taken by MI5, independently of Ministers.
MI5 has increased the threat to Northern Ireland from Northern Ireland Related Terrorism from ‘SUBSTANTIAL’ (an attack is likely) to ‘SEVERE’ (an attack is highly likely).
The public should remain vigilant, but not be alarmed, and continue to report any concerns they have to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Over the last 25 years, Northern Ireland has transformed into a peaceful society. The Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement demonstrates how peaceful and democratic politics improve society. However, a small number of people remain determined to cause harm to our communities through acts of politically motivated violence. – Chris Heaton-Harris, March 28th 2023.
Against this backdrop, the men, and women, of violence remain at the helm not just of terrorism, but also of organised crime.
The author of this article is a veteran of Operation Banner.