Biden to name Joe Kennedy as his Northern Ireland envoy

PUBLISHEDFri Dec 16 2022 20:20 GMT

UPDATEDFri Dec 16 2022 20:21 GMT

President Joe Biden will name former Rep. Joe Kennedy as his special envoy to Northern Ireland, according to a new report on Friday, with announcement coming imminently.

Kennedy, 42, is the grandson of former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968.

Kennedy, the third of his name, represented Massachusetts in Congress from 2013 to 2021. In 2020, he ran for Senate and lost in the Democratic primary to Ed Markey.

He would be the third Kennedy to join the Biden administration - following Caroline Kennedy's appointment as ambassador to Australia. She is the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy. And Biden named Victoria Anne Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, as his ambassador to Austria.

The Kennedy family strongly supported Biden in the 2020 campaign and celebrated his win over Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden will name former Rep. Joe Kennedy as his special envoy to Northern Ireland - the two men in St. Patrick's Day post on Kennedy's instagram

The appointment, reported by Politico, comes as Northern Ireland finds itself at the center of a standoff between the U.K. and the EU over Brexit trade arrangements.

Kennedy will likely be named before the end of the year because, as of January, new rules mean that all special envoy roles must be approved by the Senate, which would lengthen the process.

The special envoy position has been vacation since Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney stepped down from the role in the wake of the January 6th insurrection in the Capitol.

Biden is heavily invested in Irish politics and has urged the British to protect the Good Friday Accords.

Biden, who is proud of his Irish heritage, strongly opposed Brexit and has expressed huge concern over the future of Northern Ireland, its trade and the deal signed in 1998 that set the peace protocols in stone and ended 30 years of sectarian violence.

President Biden named Caroline Kennedy (left) as ambassador to Australia - she is the daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy. And he named Victoria Anne Kennedy (right), the widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, as his ambassador to Austria

Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, essentially stays in the European Union market, along with its neighbor the Republic of Ireland, an independent country.

To keep the land border between the two open, customs checks are done on goods being moved to and from the mainland UK.

U.K. leaders want to renegotiate this deal because, they claim, it erodes the standing of Northern Ireland within the U.K.

The Kennedy family has roots in Ireland with its ancestors having migrated from there to Boston.

The Good Friday Agreement: The deal that helped end 30 years of sectarian conflict

The Belfast Agreement is also known as the Good Friday Agreement, because it was reached on Good Friday, 10 April 1998. It helped end 30 years of sectarian conflict, that were also known as 'The Troubles'.

This conflict began when Northern Ireland separated from the rest of in the 1920s and away from British rule.

It was an agreement between the British and Irish governments, and most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, on how Northern Ireland should be governed.

The political deal designed to bring an end to 30 years of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, known as the Troubles.

It was approved by public votes in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

It says: 'Northern Ireland is part of the UK and this can change only through a referendum - if most people in Northern Ireland want it to

People born in Northern Ireland can have Irish or British nationality or both

As part of the agreement:

Armed groups agreed to dispose of their weapons

People who had been involved in violence were released from prison

The UK government agreed to aim for 'normal security arrangements' - including the scaling back of the British military presence

Biden to name Joe Kennedy as his Northern Ireland envoy

The Good Friday Agreement: The deal that helped end 30 years of sectarian conflict

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