President Joe Biden has called on the main Northern Ireland political parties to “repair, repair, repair” the political institutions of the North.
The self-proclaimed ‘son of Ireland’ said that he hopes that the Northern Assembly and Executive can be restored quickly.
But he emphasised that this can only happen if northern politicians want progress too.
FOLLOW LIVE: US President Joe Biden's visit to Ireland as it happens
He said that Northern Ireland had been made “technicolour by peace” and he promised that the United States would continue to be “partners for peace.”
The US President was speaking at the formal opening of the University of Ulster’s new £350million campus building on York Street in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter.
He gave a speech at an event organised to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement on April 10th 1998.
There was a small select audience of about 60 people in the room, featuring political leaders, business people, students and figures from the arts, while the three balconies above the atrium were full with staff and students from the college
President Biden singled out James Martin, the young actor from the Irish Oscar-nominated short, An Irish Goodbye.
He said that when he gets home to the US he’ll be able to “brag to my daughter” after getting his picture taken with the actor earlier.
James stood for a sustained round of applause when he was name-checked..
Among those in the audience were the leaders of the five main political parties in Northern Ireland, including Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill and the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson, who sat beside each other for the keynote speech.
Also there was the UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris, peace activist, Monica McWilliams, US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken and the new Special Economic Envoy for Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy III.
President Biden began his speech a little early, at five to one instead of one o’clock, and had left the building before two pm, with his car, ‘the Beast,’ and his official cavalcade seen leaving the buildings at 13:55.
He made his way from there to Aldergrove RAF airport, where his Air Force One jet was waiting to whisk him away to Dublin for his next round of engagements there and in Louth.
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