On the first full day that legislative and executive powers reside in Belfast for 25 years, the President, Mrs McAleese, will cement the special relationship between Ireland and Britain when she lunches with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace. The President's appointment with Queen Elizabeth is a hugely symbolic event as Northern Ireland embarks on a new political era. In a lecture at St Paul's Cathedral in London last night, the President spoke of a "new script" being written in Northern Ireland, one that was not a repetition of the past but an adventure in broad-based participative democracy.
"Creating the space in which peace can breathe is a slow and frequently frustrating task," she said. "It takes dedicated and patient work to make possible each modest, carefully taken step forward. It takes immense bravery and frequently demands a heroic resilience to keep going when it would be all too easy to give up.
"But all those efforts do bear fruit, have borne fruit, and today on these islands, a crevice has finally been created - and through that crevice the future we now face in Ireland has entered." The theme of the lecture was "The New Millennium: Blessed be the Peacemakers". She said political leaders had shown great courage. The President spoke of the great strides politicians had taken toward creating an inclusive Executive: "They richly deserve our praise and thanks and they will rightly be remembered as true and dedicated peacemakers.
"Every person with a scrap of charity in their hearts will wish them well in their endeavour as we do here today." Mrs McAleese began the first day of her visit to England by reopening the Camden Irish Centre in London after extensive refurbishment.