THE QUEENS visit has generated huge interest from the international media, with more than 5,000 newspaper articles appearing within 24 hours of the royal party arriving in Ireland.
THE TIMES
“It would have been easy for the visit to have been overwhelmed by the history. But the contaminated past was not, in the event, the main motif of the day. The great virtue of the rituals of monarchy, derived as they are from a place above politics, is that they allow the reconciliation of bitterly opposed political forces.
“Even with a troubled past at its back, a royal visit is, for this reason, a much better symbol of a rapprochement between the nations than an overtly political visit.”
THE GUARDIAN:
“Although no one is naive enough to think that all passions between Ireland and Britain are now wholly spent, this visit is a powerful and proper attempt at achieving a sort of wider closure between the two states that the two peoples mostly made long ago.”
THE SUN:
“In the name of neighbourly friendship, we’ve just lent them £7 billion to stop their economy crashing. Today, they are spending £30 million of that money on ring-of-steel security to stop their most fanatical citizens murdering our Queen. Sounds Irish? Yes, but the majority of Ireland’s four million people are delighted to be hosting the first royal visit for 100 years.”
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
“A sombre Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath at a memorial for the victims of Irelands independence struggle in a landmark gesture on the first visit by a British monarch to the Irish Republic . . . Wearing white, the Queen appeared unperturbed as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Irish President Mary McAleese during the wreath-laying ceremony . . .the hushed atmosphere contrasted with the noisy scenes outside where several hundred republican protesters demonstrated against the Queen’s visit and burned a British flag.”
EL PAÍS:
“The official courtesy contrasted yesterday with popular coldness on the first trip of a British monarch to the Republic. Maybe it was because of the extraordinary security measures or because the Irish keep their historical memories close, but there were no multitudes in Dublin. . . And those who came out onto the street did so more out of curiosity than enthusiasm.”
NEW YORK TIMES:
“The Queens visit, the first to Dublin by a reigning British monarch since the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922, has been heavy on both symbolism and security with thousands of police officers mobilised to protect the Queen and streets cordoned off, restricting access to her.”
DER SPIEGEL:
“From the moment she arrived . . . the Queen started her charm offensive. The coat and hat she had chosen for the occasion were in the famously Irish national colour of green, and then she turned on the beaming smile, a rare look for her.”
