DUBLIN, Ireland–President Joe Biden on April 13 addressed a joint session of the Irish Parliament as part of his four-day visit to the island of Ireland.
“I’m at home,” Biden said at the start of his remarks, garnering a standing ovation from the Irish lawmakers.
“I only wish I could stay longer,” Biden continued, expressing deep pride in his Irish roots.
During his address to the Houses of the Oireachtas, the president reflected on the strong ties between the United States and Ireland. He lauded the partnership between the nations regarding aid to Ukraine, the global minimum tax, and climate change.
“Putin thought the world would look the other way. He was confident he would break NATO and the European Union,” Biden said. “He was wrong on every point and every front. Today, we’re more united and more determined than ever to defend the values that make us strong.”
“I’m grateful for Ireland’s partnership in delivering this game-changing international agreement,” Biden said, referring to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s global pact on taxation. Ireland withdrew its objection to the revision of global corporate tax rules in 2021, opting to end its 12.5 percent tax on large multinationals in favor of a 15 percent global minimum tax.
During his speech, Biden also hailed the Good Friday Agreement and urged the British government to collaborate closely with Ireland.
“The United Kingdom should be working closer with Ireland. Political violence must never again be allowed to take hold in this island,” the president said.
“Peace is precious. It still needs its champions. It still needs to be nurtured.”
People Before Profit, a far-left political party in the country, earlier announced that it would boycott the speech over objections to Biden’s foreign policy.
The president “has received an incredibly warm welcome here in Ireland,” Amanda Sloat, senior director for Europe at the U.S. National Security Council, told reporters on April 13, when asked about the planned boycott.
“He is very much appreciative of the invitation to address the Houses of Parliament today, [and] is looking forward to touching base with the leaders of Ireland’s main political parties ahead of his address,” she said.
Prior to the parliamentary address, Biden met with Irish President Michael Higgins at his official residence, Aras an Uachtarain. Following the meeting, he participated in a tree-planting ceremony and he rang the Peace Bell, which was installed in 2008 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
The president also met with the Irish prime minister, or taoiseach, Leo Varadkar.
Biden began his personal and political visit to the island of Ireland on April 11. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, his first stop, Biden marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a deal that ended 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.
“The dividends of peace are all around us,” Biden told an audience at Ulster University in Belfast, praising the 1998 accord, in which President Bill Clinton and Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) played key roles.
“Supporting the people of Northern Ireland, protecting the peace, preserving the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement is a priority for Democrats and Republicans alike in the United States, and that is unusual today because we’ve been very divided in our parties,” Biden said.
“This is something that brings Washington together. It brings America together.”
On April 12, Biden also met with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Belfast to discuss the political situation in Northern Ireland. It was their third meeting since Sunak took over from former Prime Minister Liz Truss in October 2022.
Biden’s trip to Ireland also was largely personal, as he traced his family history. On April 12, Biden traveled to County Louth, a coastal county in the eastern and midland region of Ireland, where his great-grandfather James Finnegan was born.
“My great-great-grandfather left from the same port five weeks later after Barack Obama’s great-great-grandfather. And the idea that they both would seek a new life and think that their great-great-grandsons would end up being president of the United States is remarkable,” Biden told reporters after his meeting with Higgins.
Biden, who is accompanied by his son Hunter and sister, Valerie, is scheduled to visit some distant cousins in County Mayo on April 14 before returning to the United States.
