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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFormer IRA commander to meet Queen Elizabeth II
LONDON (AP) The Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party says one of its leaders, Martin McGuinness, will meet Queen Elizabeth II next week a once-unthinkable symbol of progress toward peace in Northern Ireland.
McGuinness, a former IRA commander, has been invited to attend an event with the queen in his role as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government.
Neither Sinn Fein nor Buckingham Palace revealed detailed plans for the meeting. Britain's Press Association news agency said McGuiness and the queen would meet and shake hands in a private room at the beginning of the engagement. But even if it amounts to little more than a quick handshake, the meeting will have great symbolic value.
The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, will visit Northern Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of her United Kingdom-wide tour celebrating 60 years on the throne.
More at: http://news.yahoo.com/former-ira-commander-meet-queen-elizabeth-ii-145558391
'Tis a grand thing I think...
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)It's gotta help.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)That's how a lot of mammals stake out their territory.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,272 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,150 posts)This works: http://news.yahoo.com/former-ira-commander-meet-queen-elizabeth-ii-145558391.html
As it points out, Prince Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten, was killed by the IRA in 1979, along with his 14 year old grandson and his grandmother, and a 15 year old Irish boy.