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04/11
Queen to Make First State Visit to Ireland Since Independence
By Andrew Atkinson
March 4 (Bloomberg) — Queen Elizabeth II will pay a state visit to Ireland this year, the first by a British monarch since the country gained its independence in 1921.
The queen accepted an invitation from Irish President Mary McAleese and will be accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, according to a statement released by Buckingham Palace in London today. It didn’t give a date for the visit.
“The visit will mark a further improvement in the very good relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom,” the Irish government said in a statement. Irish broadcaster RTE said the trip would probably take place in the spring.
Britain formally included Ireland in the U.K. in 1801 and ruled the country until 1921, when fighting by the nationalist Irish Republican Army resulted in a treaty granting partial independence to 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties. The six northeastern counties became Northern Ireland and remained under British control.
The treaty, which aside from partitioning the country also required lawmakers in the Irish parliament to swear an oath of allegiance to the British monarch, sparked a civil war. Those who fought against the treaty lost and went on to form Fianna Fail, the dominant political party in Ireland since 1932. In 1948 Ireland declared itself a republic.
In 1998, a Northern Ireland peace deal supported by the U.K. and Irish governments largely ended three decades of violence between nationalists and pro-British unionists that claimed more than 3,500 lives. The IRA decommissioned its weapons in 2005 and said it would work toward its goal of a united Ireland peacefully.
“The peace process has not only transformed the lives of people in Northern Ireland but cemented a new era in the relationship between the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland,” Shaun Woodward, Northern Ireland spokesman for Britain’s opposition Labour Party, said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is the next chapter in an extremely positive story.”
–With assistance from Colm Heatley in Belfast and Dara Doyle in Dublin. Editors: Eddie Buckle, Fergal O’Brien
To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.