Joe Biden lands in Ireland in visit aimed at ensuring peace on the island holds

“That’s the main thing,” he said.

The president also revealed that two members of his family — understood to be son Hunter Biden and sister Valerie Biden Owen — would be making the trip. His wife, Jill Biden, will not be travelling.

It is expected that Mr Biden will meet with the leaders of Northern Ireland’s main political parties before the Ulster University talk, in the absence of a visit to Stormont, which was seen by some in the North as a snub. However, the fact that the Northern institutions are not up and running is believed to have made such a visit a potential issue for Mr Biden, and so it was avoided.

A major security operation will be in place on both sides of the border for Mr Biden’s visit, with more than 300 officers from the rest of the UK being drafted into Northern Ireland, and the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and the Special Detective Unit (SDU) tasked with liaising with US officials during the visit.

More than 1,000 personnel from the Secret Service, An Garda Síochána, and the Defence Forces are scheduled to protect Mr Biden in the Republic.

In Dublin, Gardaí have closed off Earlsfort Terrace where the president will spend Wednesday and Thursday nights, as well as imposing parking and traffic restrictions on a host of streets. Similar restrictions will be in place in Louth on Wednesday, as Mr Biden visits both Carlingford and Dundalk, and in Ballina on Friday, where Mr Biden's visit will end with a public address.

The PSNI has also warned of significant traffic disruption in Belfast during the presidential visit, with a number of roads in the city centre already closed.

On Thursday, Mr Biden will become the fourth US president to address the Oireachtas, after he meets Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Michael D Higgins. The White House said Mr Biden will take part in a tree-planting ceremony and ringing of the Peace Bell at the president’s official residence, Áras an Uachtaráin.

The president’s trip will conclude on Friday with a visit to Co Mayo. He will tour the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock and visit the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre’s family history research unit. He will then make a public speech at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina.

Mr Biden's visit comes with an ask by Cork woman Naoise Connolly Ryan for "just six minutes of his time".

Ms Connolly Ryan’s husband, Mick Ryan, deputy chief engineer at the World Food Programme, and 156 others were killed as a result when a Boeing 737 Max crashed six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on March 10, 2019. Boeing was fined $2.5bn by the US Justice Department, but nobody has ever been held to account for the deaths.

In an open letter to Mr Biden, Ms Connolly Ryan asks him "to bring transparency and accountability to this case" by lifting a sealing order and reopening a plea deal that allows Boeing executives to go free.