QUEEN ELIZABETH II is to be invited by the Government to visit Ireland for an official State visit before President Mary McAleese’s term of office ends next year, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said.
No obstacle now exists to the visit, said Mr Cowen after a meeting in Downing Street with British prime minister David Cameron.
He said the visit would copperfasten the improved ties between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
“The important point that I am making is that it is timely now that we move on in this relationship and have these normal courtesies observed between neighbouring friendly states,” the Taoiseach said.
Preparations have already begun for the queen’s arrival, the first by a reigning British monarch since partition, which will be followed by a State visit by the President to Britain.
President McAleese has made frequent visits there and she has already met the Queen both in Buckingham Palace and in Northern Ireland, but this will be the first to be accorded state status. Both the Áras and Buckingham Palace have been keen for a State visit by the queen to take place, but, up to now, the Government has been reluctant to extend an invitation.
However, the completion of the Belfast Agreement with the devolution of justice and policing powers and the publication of the Bloody Sunday report has cleared the way for the visit to take place.
Dates have not yet been decided. The queen and Prince Philip will visit Canada in June and the United Nations in New York in July, while she will receive Pope Benedict during his state visit to England and Wales in mid-September.
President McAleese’s term of office ends in mid-November next year. Emphasising the links between the two countries, Mr Cowen said more trade takes place between Ireland and the UK than between the UK and China and India combined, while “many Irish people have made their living and reared their families here”.
“We have started the process between both prime ministers’ offices whereby we can look to this prospect.
“I would like to see it happening during the tenure of our own President,” he said.
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin condemned the development. “Sinn Féin opposes the proposed state visit of the Queen of England, commander-in-chief of the British armed forces,” he said.
“Until there is complete withdrawal of the British military and the British administration from Ireland, and until there is justice and truth for victims of collusion, no official welcome should be accorded to any officer of the British armed forces of any rank.”
A spokeswoman for the President said she looked forward to the prospect of visit to Ireland by the queen “in the near future”.