QUEEN ELIZABETH arrives on the first visit by a British sovereign to the Republic tomorrow to a backdrop of unprecedented security and widespread traffic restrictions.
The Queen is due to touch down at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel at noon tomorrow, from where she will be transferred to Áras an Uachtaráin for a ceremonial welcome.
After meeting President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, will attend a tree-planting ceremony in the Áras and a lunch hosted by the McAleeses.
The symbolic highlight of the first day of the visit is likely to be at the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square, where the 85-year-old British monarch will lay a wreath. She will then travel to Trinity College to view the Book of Kells and attend a reception before repairing to Farmleigh for a private evening.
While the four-day visit is likely to cause some disruption for motorists and commuters, it is seen by the Government as a significant opportunity to market Ireland as a tourist destination.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Government and the Garda were conscious of security threats, but maintained the Queen would receive a warm welcome from the vast majority of Irish people.
He described her visit as the start of a new era between the two countries based on respect, friendship and mutual recognition.
“The visit of the Queen is symbolically a healing of the past and facing with courage to the future,” Mr Kenny told Sky News.
Gardaí have banned onlookers from the streets outside all the destinations on her visit. They say protesters will not get near the Queen, with up to 4,000 officers on the streets at any one time in Dublin alone.
Surveillance has been stepped up on known republican dissidents, with several arrests made in the North and South.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said he believed people would understand that the inconvenience they experienced as a result of the security arrangements were necessary to ensure the visit went off well and the benefits for the country were maximised.
He said a number of events had been planned around the visit to promote trade and tourism. “We have to see the visit as a historic event in itself but also as an opportunity to build trade that will help us build economic recovery in the country.” On Wednesday, the Queen is due to visit the Guinness Storehouse, meet the Taoiseach and lay a wreath at the Irish War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge. In the afternoon, she will visit Croke Park. Mrs McAleese will host a State dinner in Dublin Castle that evening.
Thursday’s itinerary includes visits to the National Stud and the Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud, as well as a reception at the Convention Centre in Dublin. For the last day of the visit on Friday, the Queen travels to the Rock of Cashel and Coolmore Stud in Co Tipperary before fulfilling a number of engagements in Cork and leaving Ireland from Cork airport.