With the presidency of Joe Biden now in its final days, the Irish phrase ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís springs to mind.
Those oft-used words are usually employed to signal someone’s exceptional qualities, whose like will not be seen again.
Political commentators and historians will pass judgement on the ups and downs of Joe Biden’s record in office. Presidential reputations tend to rise and fall with the passage of time and the emergence of new perspectives fuelled by fresh archival revelations.
In Biden’s case, the strength of America’s economic recovery, the long-term legacy of the infrastructural investments agreed during his term, and his key role in building western solidarity in support of Ukraine, sit on the plus side of his ledger.
The negative side is weighted by a less-than-smooth withdrawal from Afghanistan, an abject inability to rein in the Netanyahu government in its assault on Gaza until the very last days of his presidency, despite the unstinting support he provided to Israel after the October 7 attacks, and a failure to control immigration, which damaged his standing in the eyes of many Americans.
And, of course, there was Biden’s delayed departure from the 2024 presidential race that handicapped his Vice President’s electoral prospects.
Whatever view you take of Biden’s overall performance, his engagement with Ireland shines brightly through the clouds.
Given the increased ethnic diversity of the American political class, it may be a long time before we get another US President with such Irish credentials, someone who has always identified as ‘Irish’ (meaning Irish American of course).
Biden also hailed from a typical blue-collar Irish background, as opposed to the patrician atmosphere in which John F Kennedy grew up. JFK tended to play down his Irish heritage until he was safely ensconced in the White House.
His 1963 visit to Ireland was, I think, an eye-opener for him, but alas he did not live to build on that rapport with Ireland.
It could have been a game-changer when violence broke out in Derry and Belfast in 1969 had Kennedy been around to mediate, with the prestige of a newly-retired Irish American president trailing clouds of glory from eight momentous years in the Oval Office. Think about it.
Joe Biden was one of the signatories of the 1981 statement by members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that led to the setting up of the Congressional Friends of Ireland, which has played an invaluable role over the years in support of the peace process.
Biden did not match the sustained, high-profile contributions made by Ted Kennedy and Tip O’Neill during the long run-up to the Good Friday Agreement, but like many others in Congress he was a reliable supporter of their efforts.
As Vice President to Barack Obama, Biden was noted for his habit of frequently quoting Irish poetry. In 2020, the Biden campaign released his powerful reading of Seamus Heaney’s ‘The Cure at Troy’ with its promise to make ‘hope and history rhyme’, which sought to capture Biden’s offer to American voters.
He also began the practice of the Vice President hosting the Taoiseach for breakfast prior to the meeting with the President in the Oval Office on St Patrick’s Day. Mike Pence and Kamala Harris continued that tradition. Will JD Vance do so too?
During my first three years in Washington, as former Vice President, Joe Biden came to the Embassy Residence a number of times, including to launch the Cambridge History of Ireland. On that occasion, he went off script to rhapsodise about his Irish heritage and to reminisce on what he learned about Ireland from his Finnegan grandfather in Scranton, who was the son of two Irish-born immigrants.
Despite Trump’s vocal enthusiasm for Brexit, his first administration sat on the fence with regard to its Northern Ireland angle. The gears shifted with the arrival of the Biden team, which was more active in pressing for a solution.
In May 2022, a senior State Department official, Derek Chollet, was sent to London to urge the British Government to resolve its differences with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol. ‘Let’s lower the temperature. Let’s try to move into a negotiation’ was how Chollet publicly expressed the US position.
It is easy to imagine how much more adamant he must have been in private. The EU-UK negotiations quickly picked up momentum and, after Rishi Sunak’s appointment as Prime Minister, led to agreement on the Windsor Framework, which was warmly welcomed in Washington.
The short time Biden spent in Belfast in April 2023, accompanied by his Special Envoy, Joe Kennedy III, was an unmistakable rebuke to the Northern Ireland parties for their extended failure to restore the institutions.
The obvious delight he took in being so warmly welcomed in Carlingford, Dundalk, Dublin and Ballina served to underline the genuineness of his identity as ‘Irish Joe from Scranton’, the most ‘Irish’ American President since JFK.
The last time I saw him in person, in the White House on St Patrick’s Day 2022, he was enjoying himself immensely as he practically danced onto the stage to greet his guests as part of an evening of Irish song and dance.
He cut a very different figure that evening from the stumbling president we saw during his fateful debate with Donald Trump.
With an uncertain new era about to commence in US politics, of America’s 46th President, Joe Biden, we Irish can surely say, ní bheidh a leithéid ann arís.
:: Daniel Mulhall is a former Irish Ambassador to the US and author of Pilgrim Soul: WB Yeats and the Ireland of his Time (New Island Books, 2023). X: @DanMulhall; Bluesky: danmulhall.bsky.social