Queen's Ireland visit filled with symbolism
DUBLIN (CBS/AP) Everything Queen Elizabeth II did Tuesday on the first day of a four-day state visit to Ireland was filled with symbolism.
Words weren't necessary when the British monarch placed a wreath in Dublin's Garden of Remembrance to honor the Irish rebels who lost their lives fighting for freedom from Britain.
Pictures: Queen Elizabeth in Ireland
Pictures: Queen Elizabeth
Pictures: Queen of hats
The queen became the first British monarch to set foot in Dublin for a century. Her visit is designed to show that the bitter enmity of Ireland's war of independence 90 years ago has been replaced by Anglo-Irish friendship, and that peace has become irreversible in the neighboring British territory of Northern Ireland.
The ceremony under threatening steel-gray skies was simple and direct, its meaning clear. There were no apologies, no acknowledgment of misdeeds, but the presence of the British monarch on ground that is sacred to many Irish was a powerful statement of a desire to start anew.
Not everyone agrees. That's why helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft patrolled the skies and marksmen kept watch on rooftops during the ceremony for any attempt by Ireland's most extreme nationalists to disrupt the event.
The queen arrived 100 years after her grandfather George V visited Dublin when Ireland that was still part of the British Empire.
She tailored her outfits to her destination, stepping off the plane resplendent in a cloak of emerald green and a dress of St. Patrick's blue. She later changed into an ivory outfit trimmed with green. Both outfits were topped with the fanciful hats that are her trademark.
She had been invited to Ireland by President McAleese, a Belfast-born Catholic who has spent 14 years lobbying the queen to make the journey in the name of peace.
McAleese welcomed the queen by saying that Britain and Ireland were ``determined to make the future a much, much better place.''
The queen didn't comment ahead of her planned speech Wednesday night at Dublin Castle, the former seat of British rule of Ireland.