Picture of Joe Biden with Gerry Adams and IRA chief who tried to kill an Army officer emerges - as former Sinn Fein president says they discussed 'a united Ireland'

Joe Biden seen with his arm is around IRA fugitive Rita O'Hare and Gerry Adams

Gerry Adams said he discussed a united Ireland with the former vice-president

Biden once said no one in orange was welcome in his house on St Patrick's Day

He has warned Boris Johnson that if Brexit undermines the Good Friday Agreement, there will be no trade deal with the US.

But as Joe Biden inched closer to the White House last night, his own much-trumpeted Irish roots were placed under the spotlight.

It came after a photograph emerged in which his arm is around an IRA fugitive with the pair flanked by Gerry Adams, who, in a potentially incendiary claim, said he discussed a united Ireland with the former vice-president.Taken just three years ago, the image sparked warnings from UK politicians that Mr Biden needs to be more cautious about who he associates with when he becomes President.

Mr Biden has previously spoken with pride about his Irish Catholic roots in his Pennsylvania birthplace, and he travelled to County Mayo in 2016 to visit distant relatives.

However, the notoriously gaffe-prone ex-senator sparked fury the year before when he quipped to an Irish delegation that no one 'wearing orange' was welcome in his house on St Patrick's Day, a comment seen as a slur against Protestants.

Mr Biden was photographed alongside former Sinn Fein president Mr Adams and with his arm around the party's then US representative, Rita O'Hare, in 2017.

In 1972 she was arrested in Northern Ireland for the attempted murder of a British Army officer in Belfast the previous year.

Released on bail, she fled to Dublin where the Irish High Court ruled she should not be extradited to the UK because her alleged offence was 'political'. She is believed to be among almost 200 IRA suspects told they would not face prosecution by Tony Blair's government as part of the Northern Irish peace process.

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