Queen begins historic Ireland visit despite IRA bomb threats
Source: Agencies |
May 18, 2011, Wednesday
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UNDETERRED by real and fake bombs, Queen Elizabeth II yesterday began the first visit by a British monarch to the Republic of Ireland, a four-day trip to highlight strong Anglo-Irish relations and the success of Northern Ireland peacemaking.
Resplendent in a cloak of emerald green and a dress of St Patrick's blue, the 85-year-old queen stepped out from a bombproof, bulletproof Range Rover outside the official residence of Irish President Mary McAleese.
Irish Army artillery units fired a 21-gun salute as a military brass band played "God Save the Queen."
The painstakingly choreographed visit has been designed to highlight today's exceptionally strong Anglo-Irish relations and the slow blooming of peace in neighboring Northern Ireland following a three-decade conflict that left 3,700 dead.
The queen arrived 100 years after her grandfather George V visited Dublin and an Ireland that was still part of the British Empire.
Beaming smiles by the queen and McAleese - a Belfast-born Catholic who has spent 14 years lobbying for Elizabeth II to visit - demonstrated genuine warmth between the two women, who have met several times before.
McAleese said Britain and Ireland were "determined to make the future a much, much better place."
The queen didn't comment ahead of her planned speech tonight at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule of Ireland.
Irish Republican Army dissidents opposed to reconciliation with Britain still tried to undermine the visit with real and hoax bombs, but they caused no significant disruption.
Irish Army experts overnight defused one pipe bomb on a Dublin-bound bus that was detected in Maynooth, 25 kilometers west of the capital. Police said the bomb was properly constructed but not primed to detonate.
A second device abandoned near a light-rail station in west Dublin was deemed a hoax yesterday morning.
Later, police responded to at least two more reports of suspicious packages in working-class districts of north Dublin, but no further bombs were confirmed.
But Irish and British officials were keen to stress that the queen's visit to Dublin, Kildare, Tipperary and Cork would proceed as planned - accompanied by the biggest security operation in the Republic of Ireland's history.
"This is the start of an entirely new beginning for Ireland and Britain," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said. "I really do hope that the welcome she gets will be genuine and memorable for her."
The queen visited Trinity College and lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance, a central Dublin memorial that honors Ireland's rebel dead. The gesture was designed to symbolize Britain's reconciliation with Ireland 90 years after a guerrilla war led to independence for the Catholic south of the island.
Resplendent in a cloak of emerald green and a dress of St Patrick's blue, the 85-year-old queen stepped out from a bombproof, bulletproof Range Rover outside the official residence of Irish President Mary McAleese.
Irish Army artillery units fired a 21-gun salute as a military brass band played "God Save the Queen."
The painstakingly choreographed visit has been designed to highlight today's exceptionally strong Anglo-Irish relations and the slow blooming of peace in neighboring Northern Ireland following a three-decade conflict that left 3,700 dead.
The queen arrived 100 years after her grandfather George V visited Dublin and an Ireland that was still part of the British Empire.
Beaming smiles by the queen and McAleese - a Belfast-born Catholic who has spent 14 years lobbying for Elizabeth II to visit - demonstrated genuine warmth between the two women, who have met several times before.
McAleese said Britain and Ireland were "determined to make the future a much, much better place."
The queen didn't comment ahead of her planned speech tonight at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule of Ireland.
Irish Republican Army dissidents opposed to reconciliation with Britain still tried to undermine the visit with real and hoax bombs, but they caused no significant disruption.
Irish Army experts overnight defused one pipe bomb on a Dublin-bound bus that was detected in Maynooth, 25 kilometers west of the capital. Police said the bomb was properly constructed but not primed to detonate.
A second device abandoned near a light-rail station in west Dublin was deemed a hoax yesterday morning.
Later, police responded to at least two more reports of suspicious packages in working-class districts of north Dublin, but no further bombs were confirmed.
But Irish and British officials were keen to stress that the queen's visit to Dublin, Kildare, Tipperary and Cork would proceed as planned - accompanied by the biggest security operation in the Republic of Ireland's history.
"This is the start of an entirely new beginning for Ireland and Britain," Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said. "I really do hope that the welcome she gets will be genuine and memorable for her."
The queen visited Trinity College and lay a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance, a central Dublin memorial that honors Ireland's rebel dead. The gesture was designed to symbolize Britain's reconciliation with Ireland 90 years after a guerrilla war led to independence for the Catholic south of the island.
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