What can violent extremists do to wreck Joe Biden’s first visit to Northern Ireland? The answer is precious little. The President’s visit has been denied the electoral fairy dust of a functioning Executive as he blows in to hail 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement. While that might disappoint some local politicians keen to bathe in some harmless warm platitudes, it will be less of a security headache for those charged with keeping him safe.
So what of the known arrangements and the risks? Biden will land at Belfast International Airport this evening and be taken, one assumes by air, to a venue in the city for some glad-handing. He’ll then spend the night – quite possibly at Hillsborough Castle, the King’s official residence in Northern Ireland – before a speech the following day at a new campus for Ulster University. Then it’s across the border by the afternoon to play spot the ancestor in counties Louth and Mayo.
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