Irish state visit: The Queen in green
monster beatsThe phrase used by the BBC's Ireland correspondent yesterday morning said more than he intended. This was one small step for the Queen, observed Mark Simpson, as Elizabeth II stepped on to Irish soil, but one huge moment in British-Irish history. The echo of Neil Armstrong's famous comment prompts a striking thought. The Sea of Tranquillity is about a thousand times further than the centre of Dublin is from Buckingham Palace. Yet for much of the Queen's long reign, the thought of a royal visit to Ireland was almost as improbable as the thought of a royal visit to the moon. dr dre beats
beats headphones,Yesterday, though, the previously unthinkable happened at last. Good. Inevitably, the first hours spent by a British monarch in Ireland since George V a century ago generated a potent array of British-Irish symbolism. Some of it was discordant. Most of it was not. monster headphones,
The Queen wore green – though jade, not emerald. Her plane arrived at Casement aerodrome, named after a man executed for treason against her grandfather. Soldiers of the Irish Republic saluted as she drove up to what was once the Viceregal Lodge for lunch with President McAleese. Then, particularly freighted with meaning, the Queen drove along Irish history's most iconic thoroughfare, O'Connell Street, to the garden of remembrance where, after the playing of the British national anthem, she bowed her head in memory of those who took up arms against her ancestors in 1916 – and before and since. beats by dre
