Tricolour and Union Jack fly side by side in Windsor
The President’s visit has started in a blaze of tributes and pageantry
Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister Northern Ireland , speaking to Brian O’Driscoll and Amy Huberman at the banquet held at Windsor Castle during the state visit of President Higgins. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
In his account in his memoirs of the day he became the first Irish head of government to address MPs and peers in the Palace of Westminster seven years ago, Bertie Ahern recalls finishing the day canvassing on the Navan Road in Dunlin at ten o’clock that night.
President Michael D. Higgins yesterday, however, became the first Irish head of state, not just of government, to address members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the same Royal Gallery room.