Michael Higgins becomes first Irish head of state to make official visit to Britain

Posted April 09, 2014 10:43:22

Ireland's president Michael Higgins has become his country's first head of state to make an official visit to Britain and meet the Queen.

It is the latest in a long process aimed at improving the relationship between the two countries after decades of conflict.

Michael Higgins was greeted by the Queen outside Windsor Castle, before joining her for a private lunch and meeting the Prince of Wales.

Later, addressing both houses of Parliament, he acknowledged the painful rift between the countries over the past century, saying the two countries are friends as well as partners.

"The journey then of our shared British-Irish relationship, towards that freedom, has progressed from the doubting eyes of estrangement to the trusting eyes of partnership, and in recent years to the welcoming eyes of friendship," he said.

Mr Higgins also praised the Queen for her historic visit to Dublin in 2011.

Fears of violence as flags fly together

As British and Irish flags flew side by side on the streets outside Windsor Castle, the memories of past violence still left some visitors feeling nervous.

"I know there's been lots of worry about today and about, you know, people telling us not to come today because of worries about things that might happen," one woman said.

"It did feel a bit tense and also bringing the children, it was a bit of a worry as well," she said.

As a further sign of change, Martin McGuinness - a former Irish Republican Army (IRA) commander who is now the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, was a guest at the Queen's state banquet.

Mr McGuiness was one of the most senior and influential men in the IRA - the organisation that murdered the Queen's cousin.

For Windsor resident Laurie Lyons, this was too much, too soon.

"He's an ex-terrorist and he's killed a lot of British people," he said.

Mr McGuinness refused to sit in the House of Commons when he was an MP because he would have to take an oath of allegiance to the Queen.

Since then he has shook the Queen's hand in what was considered a landmark in relations.

Margaret Gilmore, an analyst with the Royal United Services Institute think tank, says for Mr McGuinness and his party Sinn Fein, this gesture is a balancing act between losing republican support and achieving long-term republican aims.

"Sinn Fein are making a calculation that if they could get the majority in Northern Ireland and the majority in the south, where they also campaign in the Republic of Ireland, then they would be in a very strong position to start trying to work out how they could realise their dream of having a united Ireland," she said.

"That's why this is political on the part of Sinn Fein and part of a much bigger picture about Anglo-Irish relations on the part of the British and the British government.

"There are some people who would just hate to have to sit down next to him. And that's why, on the part of Queen Elizabeth, it is an amazing gesture."

Topics: government-and-politics, unrest-conflict-and-war, england