Biden to pick Joe Kennedy as special envoy for Northern Ireland

Democrat represented Massachusetts in the US House of Representatives from 2013-2021

Former US representative Joe Kennedy at an event in Washington this month. AFP

President Joe Biden plans to nominate former congressman Joseph Kennedy III as the State Department’s special envoy for Northern Ireland, two people familiar with the matter said, as the US looks to step up its involvement with the region.

Mr Kennedy, the grandson of former US senator Robert F Kennedy, will replace Mick Mulvaney, who left the position at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency in January 2021.

The announcement should come in the next several days, said the people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified.

Mr Kennedy’s appointment was first reported by Politico.

The US is looking to play a more active role in Northern Ireland as the region prepares to mark a quarter century since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Mr Kennedy will focus on economic development in Northern Ireland and will not be involved in US efforts to broker a post-Brexit impasse between the UK and the European Union, one of the people said.

The Biden administration also wants to beat an unrelated deadline: Under a US law signed a year ago, most special envoys named after January 3, 2023, will require Senate approval, a process that can take months or even years.

The State Department and the White House declined to comment on Friday.

Mr Kennedy, a Democrat, represented Massachusetts in the House of Representatives from 2013-2021.

The dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol — the part of the Brexit deal that keeps the region in the EU’s single market to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland — has long hampered relations between London and Brussels, even though both sides agreed to a trade deal in December 2020.

US diplomats in Europe and in Washington who have been engaging with all sides on the protocol will continue to do so.

Notable members of the Kennedy family — in pictures

Members of the Kennedy family pose for a photo circa 1948 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. From left, John, Jean, Rose, Joseph Sr, Patricia, Robert, Eunice and in the foreground Edward. AP

Joseph Patrick Kennedy, wife Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and their five children pose in the garden of the US embassy in London in 1937. Getty Images

John F Kennedy and wife Jacqueline take a ride on their sailboat in Hyannis Port. AP

President-elect John F Kennedy, centre, is surrounded by family members. AP

John F Kennedy, right, and Richard Nixon appear in the fourth and final presidential debate in New York. The 1960 presidential election offered the country's first televised debates. AP

Former US president Dwight Eisenhower shakes hands with Jacqueline Kennedy as she and president-elect John F Kennedy arrive at the North Portico of the White House on inauguration day, January 20, 1961. AP

President John F Kennedy and British prime minister at the time Harold Macmillan stand in the West Wing Colonnade of the White House in 1961. AFP

Jackie Kennedy boards a plane with her sister, Lee Radziwill. Getty Images

Edward Kennedy at the White House in 1962, flanked by his brothers Robert and John. AP

Jackie Kennedy leads her daughter Caroline's pony, Macaroni, while giving gives a tour of the White House grounds to Empress Farah Pahlavi of Iran in 1962. AP

The Kennedy children play in the Oval Office at White House. AFP

Deputy administrator of Nasa Robert Seamans and Wernher von Braun with John F Kennedy in November 1963. Nasa / AP

Jackie Kennedy with her children during the funeral of her husband on November 25, 1963. AP

Eunice Kennedy cheers on a young athlete during the Special Olympics, started by the Kennedy family. Getty Images

Joe Biden when he was in the Senate with Edward Kennedy in 1987. AP

Joe Biden talks to then-president Bill Clinton's Supreme Court nominee Stephen Breyer, as Edward Kennedy looks on. AP

John F Kennedy Jr answering journalists questions soon after his mother Jackie Kennedy's death in New York. AFP

John F Kennedy Jr and his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy arrive at the White House for a state dinner in 1998. Both died in a plane crash in 1999. AFP

A woman adds a candle to a makeshift memorial during a candlelight vigil for Edward Kennedy in Washington. Getty Images / AFP

Former US representative Joseph Kennedy II speaking at the John F Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston in 2009. AP

The Kennedy brothers, from left, John, Robert and Edward. AP

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, seen here at Viking Press, became a book editor. Photo: Corbis

Caroline Kennedy, the sole surviving child of president John F Kennedy, is the current US ambassador to Australia and previously served as ambassador to Japan under president Barack Obama. Getty Images / AFP

John F Kennedy, right, Robert F Kennedy, second from right, and Patricia Kennedy, front left, pose with friends in Palm Beach in 1936. AP

Eunice Kennedy Shriver with her husband, Robert Sargent Shriver. Photo: WireImage

Wearing a gown by Christian Dior, Eunice Kennedy marries Robert Sargent Shriver in 1957. Getty Images

Maria Shriver and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007. Ms Shriver is the daughter of Eunice Kennedy Shriver. AP

President Sheikh Mohamed, who was Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi at the time, greets Maria Shriver. Photo: Ministry of the Presidential Court

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver have three children: Christina, Patrick and Katherine. AP

Maria Shriver speaks during the Women's March in Los Angeles in 2021. AFP

Robert F Kennedy addresses campaign workers moments before being shot in Los Angeles in 1968, his wife Ethel at his side. AP

Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert F Kennedy, in 2014. Reuters

The Kennedy Family at Hyannis Port in 1931. From left, Robert, John, Eunice, Jean, Joseph Senior, Rose, Patricia, Kathleen, Joseph Jr and Rosemary. The dog in the foreground is Buddy. Photo: John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum

Katherine Schwarzenegger, daughter of Maria Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger, is married to US actor Chris Pratt. AP

Robert F Kennedy's daughter Kerry Kennedy in 2021. She was previously married to former New York governor Andrew Cuomo. AFP

Robert F Kennedy Jr speaks at the Defeat the Mandates rally in Washington, protesting against the Covid-19 vaccine. EPA

US actress Cheryl Hines is married to Robert F Kennedy Jr. AFP

Cheryl Hines condemned her husband's remarks comparing the Covid vaccine and mask mandates to the Holocaust. Getty

Arnold Schwarzenegger and daughter Christina Schwarzenegger. Photo: US Special Olympics