Joe Biden will visit Northern Ireland on Wednesday, where he will try to encourage dialogue, while political paralysis prevails and the atmosphere is tense.

Belfast constitutes the first stop of this visit, which then takes a more emotional curve, as the US President heads on Wednesday afternoon to the Republic of Ireland, where he spends two days following in the footsteps of his ancestors on his mother's side.

While awaiting his arrival, he repeated before boarding the US presidential plane that his priority lies in "keeping the peace", which the parties reached with difficulty 25 years ago.

Monday's violence in the border city of Londonderry came as a reminder that the wounds had not yet healed.

The United States actively participated in the negotiations that led to the agreement, which was signed on April 10, 1998. This "Good Friday" agreement put an end to decades-long confrontations between Unitarians, who are overwhelmingly Protestant, and Republicans, most of whom are Catholics.

The 80-year-old Democratic president does not intend to remain idle in the face of the institutional paralysis that struck this British territory more than a year ago.
The functioning of the self-governing joint institutions in Northern Ireland, which is one of the gains of the peace agreement, is suspended due to the refusal of the Democratic Unionist Party, the main Unionist party, to participate in them.

And Joe Biden will have the opportunity on Wednesday to “meet the leader of each of the five major political parties” in the region, to deliver a speech at the University of Belfast, according to what the White House said.

But the White House was keen to say that the meeting "will not be formal."

It will not be easy for the Democratic president to influence the Unitarians who remain wary of this Catholic president, who is very proud of his Irish roots.

"Northern Ireland is not really important to Biden," said one of the most prominent leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party, Ian Paisley.
Biden, who will also meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, arrives with a "double message", according to what John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, said Tuesday.

Joe Biden wants to "congratulate" first on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the peace agreements, and he also wants to talk about the future and adopt "economic and trade policies that are in the interest of all groups."

Washington seeks, in particular, to bring the institutions out of paralysis. This requires removing the DUP's rejection of measures on the very sensitive land border situation with the Republic of Ireland after the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.

After his lightning visit to Britain, Joe Biden begins the personal and family part of his visit.

Biden, who had previously visited Ireland when he was US Vice President, praises his Irish origins after his ancestors immigrated to the United States in the nineteenth century in search of a better life.

The White House was keen to detail the president's family tree for reporters and provide a series of funny details about the president's ancestors.

The US President seeks to turn the visit into a political platform, as he intends to run for elections in 2024.
He wants to prove to the frustrated middle class that the "American dream" is still possible, while emphasizing that he comes from a humble working family.

Biden plans to visit two Irish towns that genealogy experts say his great-grandparents came from: Louth and Mayo.
In the small town of Ballina, located in the northwest, American flags have been spread around a mural that has adorned a local bar since Biden won the presidential elections in the United States.

Between the two stops, the US President will visit Dublin, which will include bilateral meetings and a speech to parliamentarians.