Irish Examiner view: Economic opportunity for peace

US president Joe Biden arriving to deliver his keynote speech at Ulster University in Belfast, during his visit to the island of Ireland yesterday. 

The arrival of president Joe Biden in Ireland comes with all the attendant dazzle — the Secret Service, the motorcades, Air Force One, all of the markers which establish the presence of the most powerful person in the world.

In Ireland those visits almost inevitably include a visit to a pub for stout, and the sudden rise to fame of an obscure townland, but the historic nature of this particular visit comes with an extra layer of context.

It is the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, the groundbreaking deal which owed so much to American commitment to helping to find peace in Northern Ireland. 

The array of commemorative articles, programmes and discussion which celebrated that achievement have helped all to remember how far we have travelled since the dark days of the Troubles — and the distance which remains to travel, given the paralysis gripping the institutions in Northern Ireland.

In that sense it was interesting to consider president Biden’s speech in Belfast yesterday. 

He paid the expected tributes to the Good Friday Agreement and advocated strongly for peace, but he also focused cannily on economics: “Today’s Belfast is the beating heart of Northern Ireland, and it’s poised to drive unprecedented economic opportunity and investment, from communities across the UK, across Ireland and across the United States.” 

To that end a Biden appointee such as Joseph Kennedy III is as important as much for his title — US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs — as his surname. 

Focusing on economic possibilities was a promising strategy from Biden, because it offers possibilities for those in Northern Ireland who have not yet enjoyed the full fruits of peace.

Earlier this week a Queen’s University academic pointed out that paramilitary groups on both sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland are grooming and exploiting vulnerable teens — young people in areas without role models or community leaders. 

A rising economic tide such as that envisaged by Biden in his speech would help such areas and keep those teens safe from exploitation. In time to come it may prove a more significant oration than expected.