Queen lays wreath on Irish visit

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh flew into Baldonnel military airbase.

The Queen has been welcomed on her first visit to the Republic of Ireland by President Mary McAleese.

After flying into Baldonnel military airbase, outside Dublin, for the four-day visit, the Queen emerged wearing a green coat and hat.

One of the Republic’s biggest ever security operations is in place, amid a rise in dissident republican violence.

A pipe bomb found on a passenger bus bound for Dublin on Monday was made safe by an Irish army team.

At Baldonnel airbase, the royals were greeted by an Irish Air Corps guard of honour and presented with flowers by a south Dublin schoolgirl, eight-year-old Rachel Fox.

The Queen was then escorted to Aras an Uachtarain, the official residence of the Irish president in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. The visit is taking place following Mrs McAleese’s invitation.

King George V was the last reigning monarch to visit the country, in 1911, when what is now the Republic was then part of the UK.

Ahead of the visit, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: “One hundred years on from the last time a British monarch visited Ireland, I think there is a great sense of history and occasion.”

He added: “I think the real effect… will be a marker that just as we are solving some of the problems there have been between us in the past, just as we are helping each other through these difficult economic times, now is a great moment for people in Britain and people in Ireland to remember what it is we share.”

Mr Cameron will join the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh for part of their trip on Wednesday, while Foreign Secretary William Hague will follow the usual practice of accompanying the royals throughout their visit.

The Queen will attend events at Trinity College Dublin, the National War Memorial Gardens in Islandbridge and Croke Park stadium.

What do the people of Dublin think about the royal visit?

Croke Park is the home of Gaelic games where in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, British forces fired into the crowd at a football match, killing 14 spectators and players.

The Queen is also to make a speech at a state dinner at Dublin Castle.

There are plans for the Queen and Prince Philip to visit the Irish National Stud in County Kildare, as well as the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary and a technology park in Cork.

The bomb on the bus was found in a holdall in the luggage compartment on Monday night during a check in Maynooth, County Kildare, to the west of Dublin.

About 30 people who were on board the bus were taken off and transported to Dublin in another vehicle.

The device was later made safe in a controlled explosion carried out by an Irish army bomb disposal team.

The coded bomb threat relating to London, which was received on Sunday, was the first issued by Irish dissidents outside Northern Ireland in 10 years, officials said.

However, the threat level for Northern Ireland-related terrorism in Britain remains unchanged at substantial. In Northern Ireland it is severe.

The cost of the security operation has been estimated at 30 million euros (£26m), with measures including:

Deployment of more than 6,000 Irish police and Defence Forces personnel onto the streets of DublinIncreased surveillance of known republican dissidentsA ring of steel, comprising 25 miles of crowd-control barriers, installed around the Irish capitalChecking of thousands of manhole covers and lamp-posts, and parking bans imposed on 30 city centre streets

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