President Mary McAleese yesterday concluded the first official visit of an Irish head of state to Cyprus with a brief formal call on President Tassos Papadopoulos at the presidential palace where the two leaders inspected the honour guard.
The day began at the national museum, where Mrs McAleese and Dr Martin McAleese were given a tour of exhibits tracing the island's history by Dr Pavlos Flourentzos, director of the department of antiquities.
At noon she attended a reception given by Ambassador Tom Brady and his wife Cathy in honour of Mr Papadopoulos.
Among the guests were ministers, diplomats, and members of the Irish community, including gardaí serving with the UN peacekeeping force.
The Cyprus trip was combined with a first visit by an Irish president to Malta, the second and smallest Mediterranean island member of the EU. Malta shares many historical influences with Cyprus. Both were visited by St Paul, were colonised by Rome, Byzantium and the Crusaders and both fought the Ottoman empire. Like Ireland, Cyprus and Malta became part of the British empire. All three were resource-poor countries of emigration to lands where their citizens prospered and became influential.
Mrs McAleese said Cyprus and Malta were twinned for this historic tour because they were, on one level, "ideal partners" due to their size and scale and long-standing friendship with Ireland.
"Those friendships are all the more important moving forward in the European Union because it is necessary to have people we know well sitting around the table, particularly at a time the EU is expanding from 25 to 27 members.
"At another level we see them both as repositories of our European patrimony which is very important for our own people to know and understand. So, the visit is a way to open a window for people back home."