Queen Elizabeth defies threats to visit Ireland

Queen Elizabeth defies threats to visit Ireland

From: AP
May 18, 201112:00AM
















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Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, arrive in Ireland for the first visit by a monarch since 1911. Source: Getty Images




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Second bomb found ahead of Queen's visit

A bomb was defused in Ireland ahead of a visit by Britain's Queen Elizabeth scheduled to start on Tuesday.













































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Police secure the area in O'Connell Street in central Dublin ready for the arrival of Queen Elizabeth II. Source: AP


THE Queen, undeterred by real and fake bombs, last night began the first visit by a British monarch to the Republic of Ireland, a four-day trip to highlight strong Anglo-Irish relations and peace in Northern Ireland.

The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, touched down at the Casement Aerodrome southwest of Dublin at 11.55am (8.55pm AEST).

She was greeted by an Irish army honour guard and eight-year-old Rachel Fox presented her with flowers.

The Queen then boarded a bomb-proof, bullet-proof Range Rover to have lunch with Irish President Mary McAleese, who lobbied for 14 years for the visit - the first by a British monarch since Irish independence in 1922.

A 33-motorcycle police escort led the way through the unusually empty streets of Dublin - cleared to ensure no anti-British extremists could launch an attack.

Hours beforehand, republican dissidents tried to undermine the visit with real and hoax bombs.



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Irish army experts defused one pipe-bomb on a Dublin-bound bus overnight. A second device in west Dublin was deemed a hoax late yesterday.

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's history.

"This is the start of an entirely new beginning for Ireland and Britain," said Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny. "I hope the welcome she gets will be genuine and memorable for her and her party."

On her first day in Dublin, the Queen was visiting Trinity College - founded in 1592 by Elizabeth I - and laying a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance, a central Dublin memorial that honours two centuries of Ireland's rebel dead.

More than 8000 police, two-thirds of the country's police force, shut down key roads in central Dublin and erected pedestrian barricades for several kilometres. About 1000 Irish troops were being kept in reserve as potential reinforcements.

Ms McAleese said Britain and Ireland were "determined to make the future a much, much better place".

The Queen arrived a century after her grandfather, George V, visited an Ireland that was still part of the British Empire.

The royal visit will be a minefield of painful memories. The base southwest of the capital where the couple's plane landed is named after Roger Casement, an Irish nationalist executed for treason by the British in 1916.

The royals' first port of call, Aras an Uachtarain, Ms McAleese's official residence, dates back to 1751 and was used to house the viceroys who oversaw British rule in Ireland.

The Queen's arrival coincides with the 37th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, with 34 people killed, making May 17, 1974, the deadliest day of three decades of the Troubles.

However, co-operation between London and Dublin provided the essential bedrock for the Anglo-Irish Good Friday peace accord in 1998.

IRA disarmament and a Northern Ireland coalition government of the British Protestant majority and Irish Catholic minority eventually followed.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who arrives tonight in Dublin, said the success of Northern Ireland peacemaking has allowed "the natural friendship, comradeship, shared experiences and warmth that we have for each other to really come out."

He said the Queen's tour of Ireland would "be a huge step forward for that process".

Ireland's European struggle to prevent national bankruptcy - the Irish have spent three years raising taxes and cutting spending, and six months ago received a potential E67.5 billion credit from international lenders - has found its greatest champion in Britain.

Mr Cameron's government offered a particularly low-interest loan, declared Ireland's revival a strategic British interest, and pressed other EU members to cut the Irish more slack for managing their debts.