Queen Elizabeth to make historic Irish visit

World

Queen Elizabeth to make historic Irish visit

Close

Britain's Queen Elizabeth is to travel to Ireland this year in the first official visit by a British monarch since before the Irish state gained independence from Britain in 1921.

05 March,2011 09:56 am

The announcement came on Friday by Buckingham Palace and Irish President Mary McAleese but no date or itinerary was given for the state visit. Queen Elizabeth will be accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip. The last British monarch to visit Ireland was King George V, who went in 1911.At the time of George Vs visit, Ireland was in the midst of a decades-long campaign to break with the colonial rule that culminated in a bloody uprising in 1916 and a war of independence in 1919-21.McAleeses invitation to the British queen shows a growing maturity in relations between the two countries.