Northern Ireland
Deirdre Heenan: No matter what Biden said, the DUP would have spit the dummy
The hostile media coverage of the US president’s visit to the North was born of the same blind intransigence, and British impotence, that has created the Stormont stalemate
Last week’s much anticipated US presidential visit to Ireland was a story of two welcomes. In the North it was mired in controversy, variously described in the media as “whirlwind”, “blink and you miss it”, “fleeting”, “cameo”, and “perfunctory”. Many demanded to know the purpose of this visit. President Joe Biden’s decision not to accept an invitation from the Stormont speaker was depicted as a “snub” rather than one informed by logistics and the optics ...
