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Religious leaders are hailing Queen Elizabeth II’s historic state visit to Ireland this week as a sign of reconciliation following centuries of sectarian hatred and violence. They hope it will help heal divisions.
Arriving in Dublin on 17 May for a four-day visit, the queen will be the first British monarch to set foot in the republic since its founding in 1923 and the first to travel to Dublin since King George V in 1911.
She is scheduled to visit Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, which honors those who died fighting to free Ireland from British rule. She also will visit Croke Park Stadium, where British troops killed 14 people in 1920, and attend a state dinner in Dublin Castle, long a symbol of British power in Ireland.
The visit “will sustain a momentum of reconciliation,” Archbishop Alan Harper, primate of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland, told ENInews. “It is an … indication of the transformation of the relationship between the two countries. It has been very widely welcomed in the Republic and in Northern Ireland and is being looked forward to with genuine enthusiasm.”
He also said that “a huge amount of work among the main churches has also gone into transforming relationships.”
Read more of how the Queen’s visit to Ireland might heal divisions
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- Image: Monarchist League
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