Queen arrives in Northern Ireland
Reuters
2012-06-26
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Britain's Queen Elizabeth arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday (June 26), for a visit as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
During her two-day trip she will meet former IRA commander and current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness for the first time.
It will be a milestone in the province's peace process.
The queen has never met a senior figure in the now-defunct IRA, which killed her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979, or its political wing Sinn Fein, and a meeting would be a significant landmark in the peace process.
In a sign of a softening of the party's attitude to the royal family, Sinn Fein last week said it would not block the Northern Ireland government from giving the queen a present to mark the Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.
Last year, the party refused to support sending a gift for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday (June 26), for a visit as part of her Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
During her two-day trip she will meet former IRA commander and current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness for the first time.
It will be a milestone in the province's peace process.
The queen has never met a senior figure in the now-defunct IRA, which killed her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979, or its political wing Sinn Fein, and a meeting would be a significant landmark in the peace process.
In a sign of a softening of the party's attitude to the royal family, Sinn Fein last week said it would not block the Northern Ireland government from giving the queen a present to mark the Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.
Last year, the party refused to support sending a gift for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
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