DUBLIN: Undeterred by real and fake bombs, Queen Elizabeth II Tuesday began the first visit by a British monarch to the Republic of Ireland, a four-day trip to highlight strong Anglo-Irish relations and peace in neighboring Northern Ireland. The visit, the first by a British monarch since Ireland won independence from London in 1921, is designed to show how warm neighbourly relations have replaced centuries of animosity and the queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, appeared unperturbed by the bomb alert. The monarch, dressed in an emerald green coat and matching hat, was greeted by Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore upon arrival at Casement Aerodrome, a military airfield named after a British diplomat executed in 1916 for aiding the Irish nationalist cause. She met Ireland's president Mary McAleese, a Catholic from Northern Ireland and a champion of better relations between the two countries, for a ceremonial welcome followed by a lunch of roast turbot and boxty, a traditional Irish potato cake. Standing before the president's house, the former residence of the viceroys who oversaw British rule in Ireland, the queen reviewed a Guard of Honor and was given a 21-gun salute. In an overcast capital, local people shook their heads in disgust at the discovery of a bomb in the luggage compartment of a bus headed for Dublin. “It's bad. They are dragging us into the dark ages,” said Tom O'Neill, a 34-year-old salesman. “There are some people in Ireland that have to get over the whole English thing. They are our neighbors.”
