Queen Elizabeth II yesterday began the first visit to Ireland by a British monarch in a century after troops defused a bomb near Dublin following threats by republican hardliners.
The landmark four-day trip is aimed at normalizing relations between the two neighboring states, but a visit intended to underline the progress made after the hard-won peace in British-ruled Northern Ireland also highlighted how dissident republicans still pose a threat.
Irish police said a “viable explosive device” was found on a bus in Maynooth, near Dublin, hours before the queen’s arrival.
Photo: Reuters
Police were tipped off by an anonymous caller and the device was defused by the army, officials said.
It came a day after dissident paramilitaries made a coded bomb threat in central London on Monday, the first of its kind outside Northern Ireland for 10 years.
Opposition to the queen’s visit persists among a violent core of republicans, who want British-ruled Northern Ireland to become part of the Republic of Ireland and a Catholic policeman was murdered last month.
They remain a small minority and officials are doing their best to ensure the 85-year-old queen and her husband, Prince Philip, get a warm welcome.
It is the first visit to Ireland by a British monarch since the country won independence in 1922. The last sovereign to visit Ireland was George V, the queen’s grandfather, in 1911.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said there was no chance the visit would be canceled, despite the discovery of the bomb.
“This is an historic and symbolic visit and it is dealing with the conclusion of the past and a message for the future,” he said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is accompanying the queen, said there was a “great sense of history and occasion” surrounding the visit.
“Just as we are solving some of the problems that have been between us in the past, just as we are helping each other though these difficult economic times, now is a great moment for the people in Britain and the people in Ireland to actually remember all the things we share,” he said.
A 10,000-strong force is being deployed at an estimated cost of 30 million euros (US$42 million), with reports saying the navy will be deployed off the Dublin coast to prevent a possible missile strike from the sea.
Patrick Geoghegan, a history lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, said inviting the queen was a statement of Ireland’s confidence in both its independence and its relationship with Britain.
“They are our closest trading partner, they are our neighbors, who helped us out during the recent IMF bailout, and we rely so much, for trade and for tourism, on the United Kingdom,” he said.
The queen’s arrival coincides with the 37th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings by the Ulster Volunteer Force, a loyalist Protestant group. Thirty-four people were killed, making May 17, 1974, the deadliest day of the three decades of strife known as the Troubles.
In an open letter to the queen, survivors and victims’ families have pressed Cameron to release files about the incident.
The first port of call was the Aras an Uachtarain, Irish President Mary McAleese’s official residence, for a ceremonial welcome.
The Aras dates back to 1751 and used to house the viceroys who oversaw British rule in Ireland. Queen Victoria and King George V stayed there.
Following talks, the queen and McAleese were scheduled to head straight for one of the most sensitive moments of the trip — a visit to the Garden of Remembrance, dedicated to “all those who gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom.”
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