The official visit by the President, Mrs McAleese, to Scotland confirms, in the most public fashion, the extraordinary transformation of relations between Ireland and Scotland currently under way. Following centuries in which they pursued mainly separate paths of development, recent events have seen the two countries converge and renew a very old friendship.
It is fitting indeed that Mrs McAleese's visit to Scotland and England should come in the week when the institutions set up under the Belfast Agreement are being implemented - symbolising as it does the transition from Anglo-Irish to British-Irish relations.
In an interview for the supplement on Scotland and Ireland published in today's editions of this newspaper, Mrs McAleese emphasises that while this State's concentration on the "Anglo axis" with London is readily explained by historical events, it came at the cost of neglecting the other nations making up the United Kingdom.
Scotland is relatively unknown to most Irish citizens, despite the many things we have in common. Such ignorance is much less the case in Northern Ireland, where political, religious and personal links are much more developed and spontaneously apparent in everyday life.
Ireland's new relationship with our nearest neighbour must be sufficiently balanced to take that into account - which will be much easier now that the Northern Executive has been set up. Strengthening relations with Scotland are, indeed, likely to be an important stimulus to ensure it does not fail.
The British-Irish Council provides a forum in which the various sovereign and devolved governments of these two islands can meet and develop bilateral relations - and also encourage the growth of economic and cultural links among their respective civil societies. That is already happening between Scotland and Ireland irrespective of these welcome and overdue developments in the political sphere.
Today Mrs McAleese officially inaugurates the Research Institute of Scottish and Irish Studies at the University of Aberdeen. It has a broad research agenda, covering the history, language, literature and culture of the two countries. Its network of academic contacts adds distinction to several others already established in recognition of the need to understand how these changing relations will affect all concerned.
Mrs McAleese's visit to Scotland completes a phase of rapid political and diplomatic innovation between Ireland and Britain. Last year, the Government set up Consulates General in Edinburgh and Cardiff to represent this State more comprehensively after the Belfast Agreement and the devolution of power to Scotland and Wales. The Taoiseach visited Scotland one year ago and Mr Donald Dewar, Scotland's First Minister was in Dublin last month. Both men spell out their impressions and objectives in today's supplement. More ministerial visits between Edinburgh, Dublin and Belfast will follow.
Within the European Union there are likely to be several common points of interest. It is to be hoped that commercial, cultural and tourist links will develop much further on the basis of these political openings and in the interests of all the peoples involved.