Irish President Hails 'Once Unachievable' Peace with UK
Irish President Michael D. Higgins on Tuesday hailed the warm ties with Britain which he said once seemed "unachievable," during an historic state visit.
Addressing both houses of parliament, Higgins said Ireland's bloody fight for independence from the United Kingdom, which it gained in 1922, "inevitably casts its long shadow across our relations."
But Queen Elizabeth II's groundbreaking state visit to Ireland in 2011 had shown that where Britain and the republic once looked at each other with "doubtful eyes", they could now view each other "through trusting eyes and mutual respect and shared commitment."
In his speech at the Palace of Westminster, he said: "The relationship between our two islands has, as I have said, achieved a closeness and warmth that once seemed unachievable."
Higgins, the first Irish president to make a state visit to Britain since independence, said both countries could take "immense pride" in their work towards peace in NorthernIreland.
But he said there was "still a road to be traveled" to achieve lasting peace.
A reminder of that troubled past was to come later Tuesday when Martin Guinness, a former commander of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA), controversially attends a royal banquet at Windsor Castle held in the president's honor.
Higgins and his wife Sabina were earlier treated to a spectacular ceremonial welcome in Windsor, west of London, comprising of gun salutes and a glittering military parade involving 850 soldiers and 275 horses.
The president traveled with the queen to Windsor Castle in a horse-drawn carriage and conducted a troop inspection, before he presented a new red coat to the Irish wolfhound who acts as a mascot to the Irish Guards.
After a private lunch, the 72-year-old president returned to London and laid a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier at Westminster Abbey.
His show of remembrance for the British military's fallen is highly symbolic, given the long history of the army in quelling dissent in Ireland.
The presence of Sinn Fein politician McGuinness at the evening banquet is significant, although Northern Ireland's deputy first minister made the psychological leap of meeting the queen in Belfast in 2012.
As an IRA commander, McGuinness played a key role in the Troubles -- the three decades of sectarian violence between Northern Ireland's British Protestants and Irish Catholics.
The province opted to remain part of the United Kingdom when the rest of Ireland gained independence in 1922, and was a source of huge tension between Dublin and London.
The violence in Northern Ireland was largely ended by the 1998 Good Friday peace accords, which paved the way for a power-sharing government in Belfast, but only after an estimated 3,500 people died.
Political relations between Britain and Ireland have steadily improved since then, building on a shared history, personal connections and strong trade between the two countries.
Britain is Ireland's largest export market while Ireland is the fifth largest recipient of British products. In February, the two countries conducted their first ever joint trade mission, at the Singapore Airshow.
For some, however, the pace of change is too rapid.
Stephen Gault, whose father was killed by an IRA bomb in 1987, said that the presence of McGuinness at Windsor was "another nail in the coffin of the innocent victims."
"If Sinn Fein/IRA want peace, why don't they come forward now and tell the authorities who was responsible for these heinous crimes in the past," he told BBC radio.
However, Conor Murphy, a Sinn Fein lawmaker, said the banquet was "another step on that journey toward reconciliation and better relationships."
The state visit has reignited a debate about how to deal with Northern Ireland's violent past, including over whether there should be amnesties for crimes committed before 1998, both by paramilitaries and British security forces.
Source: Agence France Presse
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