MP warns President Biden to avoid anti-British gaffes during Belfast visit

President Joe Biden needs to be on his best behavior during his visit to Northern Ireland and avoid making any anti-British gaffes that could further derail the region's deadlocked political system, according to one of the province's MPs.

Claire Hanna, who represents South Belfast for the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, said unionists were ready to seize on any clumsy jokes or asides for political gain. 

Biden has a habit of peppering remarks about his Irish links with memories of his mother's anti-English sentiment and dubious jokes about the Protestant community.

'Any such gaffes would be mercilessly weaponized by the Democratic Unionist Party,' said Hanna, referring to the biggest unionist party.

Biden is due to arrive in Belfast on Tuesday at the start of a four-day visit. 

Belfast MP Claire Hanna said President Joe Biden will need to mind his manners during his visit to Northern Ireland. Any gaffe will be seized on by pro-British unionists, she said

Biden arrives at a politically awkward time. Northern Ireland's government has not sat in nearly a year amid wrangling over post-Brexit trade arrangements

The timing is designed to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence.

But it comes at a time of political crisis. The province has not had a government since May last year.

The DUP has refused to take part because of wrangling over post-Brexit trade arrangements.  

Biden is expected to meet the leaders of Northern Ireland's five political parties on Wednesday.

But experts hold out little hope that any encouragement from a U.S. president known for his pro-Irish sentiments could help ease the impasse. Instead, they fear his occasional anti-British comments could further alienate unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom.

As vice president, for example, Biden caused huge offence to Northern Ireland’s unionist community when, during a St Patrick’s day event, he joked: 'If you’re wearing orange you’re not welcome here.'

Northern Ireland's mostly Protestant unionist community associate themselves with the color in celebration of William of Orange's victory over Catholic forces at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Hanna said unionists would be looking for any similar slights during Biden's visit. 

Biden is visiting for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended decades of violence. This 1975 photograph shows the aftermath of a bomb attack on the Europa Hotel

Easter is always a flashpoint in Northern Ireland, and republican youths clashed with police in Derry on Monday, a reminder that the 1998 peace deal was only the start of a process

While many of Biden's gaffes can be shrugged off as inconsequential, Northern Ireland's febrile political scene means they could have a profound impact. 

'I mean, I think from from day one, they characterize Biden's Irish roots as meaning that he was hostile to Northern Ireland,' she told DailyMail.com.

'You know in Northern Ireland, people go out of their way to be offended. They'll be on high alert looking for something to be cross about in what he says.'

Biden is spending less than a day in Northern Ireland, before heading south of the border.

That schedule has already annoyed some in Belfast who believe he should be spending more time in the province.

But it does reduce the potential for gaffes in such a politically sensitive place. 

Biden's maternal line emigrated from Ireland during the Great Famine. The Blewitts left Co. Mayo and settled in Scranton, PA, while the Finnegans left Co. Louth and came to New York

Unionists have long been suspicious of Biden and his Irish Catholic heritage. As a senator in 1985 he spoke out against making it easier to extradite Irish Republican Army militants from the U.S. to Britain, a sentiment popular with Irish-Americans but not in Britain.  

He has talked often about his mother's hatred for England, which was so intense that she once refused to use a bed that Queen Elizabeth II had slept in.

In his memoir, 'Promises to Keep,' he recalls a degree of embarrassment at his English surname Biden.

And he describes how his Irish-American aunt Gertie Finnegan once told him: 'Your father is not a bad man. He's just English.'

In 2020, as president-elect, he took a cheeky dig at the UK's national broadcaster when a BBC reporter shouted a question at him. 'The BBC?' he said moving on with a smile. 'I'm Irish.' 

'It's part of the persona,' said Hanna. 'He's clearly not mean spirited and it's sort of a Dad joke. But it's genuinely not helpful.'