17/05/2011

Queen Arrives At Áras an Uachtaráin

The Queen has arrived in Dublin where a guard of honour and a band are greeting the royal couple at Áras an Uachtaráin.

The British national anthem was being played as President Mary McAleese, along with her husband Dr Martin McAleese, welcomed the visitors as her motorcade arrived from the airport, where, after some quick handshakes, the motorcade of State cars and about 30 Irish Army outriders accompanied the cavalcade en route to the official residence of President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny is also at the Áras for the arrival, where, at the gates, the Irish Tricolour and Union flag fly side by side.

The historic moment sees the President in pink and the Queen in green to honour the Emerald Isle.

A guard of honour and red carpet greeted the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh when they flew into Baldonnel military airbase, outside Dublin, for their four-day visit.

The trip comes amid the Republic's biggest ever security operation especially so after the Irish army made safe a pipe bomb found on a passenger bus to Dublin on Monday.

A bomb threat to London on Sunday was investigated earlier.

The historic visit is on foot of an invitation from Ardoyne-born President Mary McAleese's invitation for the Queen to come to the Republic.

She will formally welcome her at the official home in Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Irish president told state broadcaster RTE it was "an extraordinary moment in Irish history - a phenomenal sign and signal of the success of the peace process and absolutely the right moment for us to welcome onto Irish soil Her Majesty the Queen".

Mrs McAleese said the two countries were "forging a new future - a future very, very different from the past, on very different terms from the past - and I think the visit will send the message that we are, both jurisdictions, determined to make the future a much, much better place".

(BMcC/GK)

Related Irish News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

17 May 2011
Security Tight As Queen Lands In Dublin
The Queen has arrived in the Republic of Ireland and after some quick handshakes, the official motorcade has already moved off.
24 March 2010
McAleese Honours British War Graves
Irish President Mary McAleese is visiting Gallipoli in Turkey to mark the deaths of thousands of Irish soldiers who fought in the British Army during the First World War. She attended wreath-laying ceremonies in the Gallipoli region where nearly 4,000 Irish troops died in a bloody five-month campaign in 1915.
20 March 2008
Irish President's Spin
Despite controversy over her later comments on the devolution of justice and policing in Northern Ireland, and its possible impact on an anticipated visit to the Irish Republic by the Queen, President Mary McAleese's sixth meeting with the sovereign has been described in glowing terms.
17 May 2011
Royal Visitors Win Fàilte - But Not From All
The first day of the Queen's historic visit to Ireland has seen both an attempt to transport a pipe bomb into Dublin and a hoax alert and, most recently, a number of minor protests taking place in parts of Dublin.
16 May 2008
'Large Irish Presence' At Cannes
The focal point for the Irish film industry at the Cannes Film Festival, the Irish Pavilion, has opened again for business this week, with over 200 of the leading lights of the Irish film industry flying out to the festival to promote and sell new Irish cinema.