The US congressional delegation that is trying to shore up support for the Northern Ireland protocol has been sounded by unionists with scorn and scepticism.
The Democratic Unionist party DUP was accused on Monday of partisan politics and out of touch with Democrats and Republicans from the House of Representatives and Senate.
The economy minister Gordon Lyons, who is an economy minister in the mothballed Stormont executive, told the BBC that we were dealing with more American politicians who are one-sided. He said we are going to have a challenge with Congressman Neal, referring to Richard Neal, the chair of the Way and Means Committee.
Others such as Jamie Bryson, a prominent loyalist, went further and accused Neal, an ally of President Joe Biden, of supporting the IRA. He said that we aren't going to be dictated by some foreign politician acting as a surrogate for republicanism.
The American visitors are in Ireland for the end of a six-day trip to Europe that included meetings with EU spokesman Maro ef ovi in Brussels and UK foreign secretary Liz Truss in London.
The protocol has been dominated by the visit, part of the UK's divorce treaty with the EU in the year 2019, which avoided a customs and trade border on the island of Ireland by placing it in the Irish Sea. The unionist leaders say it damages the economy and undermines the position of the region in the UK.
The Americans have warned London not to unilaterally rip up parts of the protocol, saying that would violate the Good Friday agreement that underpins peace in Northern Ireland and wreck any potential trade deal with the US.
I think it is a good idea whenever there is a difference of opinion to sit down and negotiate towards a common purpose. That is the history we celebrate when we think about the benefits of the Good Friday Agreement, the Democratic congressman Dan Kildee told RT The delegation met Sinn F leader Mary Lou McDonald and the taoiseach Miche l Martin on Monday. Both lauded the visitors, showing a united front between Dublin and Washington on the protocol. Martin tweeted, "Negotiation, not unilateral action, is the way forward."
Neal will be speaking to the Seanad, the upper chamber of the Irish parliament.
The delegation is expected to meet DUP leaders before returning to the US on Wednesday. It promises to be a frosty encounter. In public and private unionists have accused the Americans of refusing to recognize that the protocol is rejected by most unionists and undermines the Good Friday agreement.
On Sunday, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, said the delegation's call for full implementation of the protocol was folly. With an economic tsunami hitting Northern Ireland, the protocol has been implemented in full means ending grace periods. Power sharing works only with cross-community consensus. The formation of an executive and assembly in Stormont was thwarted by the DUP in protest of the protocol.