Joe Biden has come to the island of Ireland to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.
The agreement, concluded on Good Friday 1998, halted the violent conflict that characterised Northern Ireland for decades, but there are still forces that want to make reconciliation more difficult by force.
"Maintaining peace is the main thing. It looks like we'll have to keep our fingers crossed," Biden said shortly before leaving Washington DC, according to The Guardian.
Pipe bombs found
Late Tuesday afternoon, police in Creggan outside the town of Omagh found four pipe bombs in a cemetery.
The city is not close to any planned route for Biden, but was a wake-up call for police to increase vigilance further after last week's warning of possible terror attacks over the Easter weekend.
"These are abhorrent acts and those responsible show total contempt for the whole community," Derry Deputy Police Commissioner Bobby Singleton told Sky News.
Celebrating the close ties
The police operation around Biden's visit is according to the BBC the largest in Northern Ireland in over ten years and the local police have been helped by around 300 colleagues from the rest of the UK.
Biden was met at the airport by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The two are due to meet Northern Irish political leaders from both pro-Irish nationalists and London-minded unionists on Wednesday – but the White House stresses that the meeting is only informal and that Biden should not engage in political talks. The President of the United States will then give a speech at Ulster University in Belfast.
During his trip, Biden will also visit Ireland's capital Dublin for a meeting with President Michael Higgins and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.
Biden will also have time for a visit to Ballina in northwest Ireland, where his family is from and where distant relatives still live. He is expected to deliver a speech there to celebrate "the deep historical ties between the United States and the Republic of Ireland," according to the White House.