Biden Casts US And Ireland As Partners In Battle To Defend Democratic Values

Joe Biden declared that Ireland and the US have a “partnership for the ages” in a highly personal address to the Irish parliament yesterday

- Rory Carroll, Lisa O'Carroll

The US president celebrated his Irish heritage and made a passionate defence of democracy in a speech to a joint sitting of the Oireachtas – both houses of parliament – in Dublin yesterday evening. “Tá mé seo abhaile,” Biden told the chamber in Irish. “I’m at home.” He added: “I just wish I could stay longer.”

In a wide-ranging address, the political highlight of his four-day visit to the island of Ireland, the president lauded American and Irish “revolutionary spirit” and cast the two nations as allies in a battle for shared values.

“As we meet these struggles they cast a shadow on our world,” he said. “The struggle between the rights of many and desires of few, between liberty and oppression, and, I know I get criticised for saying this around the world, between democracy and autocracy.”

The US was “shaped by Ireland”, which had been a historical partner, he said. “As nations we’ve known hardship and division, but we have also found solace in each other.”

In what some may view as a tacit rebuke to Downing Street, he said the UK “should be working closer” with the Irish government to support Northern Ireland, where power-sharing collapsed last year.

The reference jarred with other statements supportive of Rishi Sunak’s post-Brexit Windsor framework and efforts to revive Stormont.

Biden said the US and Ireland embodied “possibilities”, in a speech that at times appeared to channel campaign-style rhetoric.

He is expected to confirm another run for the White House soon. However, the 80-year-old also acknowledged his age. “I’m at the end of my career. Not the beginning.”