Queen Elizabeth II arrives in Ireland after bomb scare
Controlled explosion destroys 'viable' device; 2nd suspicious item was a hoax, army says
Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Dublin Tuesday for the first visit by a British monarch since the Republic of Ireland won its independence. Her visit came just hours after police and army officials discovered a bomb on a bus near Dublin.
The device was found late Monday night in the luggage compartment of a bus traveling on the outskirts of Maynooth in County Kildare west of Dublin, officials said. It was made safe early Tuesday after a controlled explosion by bomb disposal experts.
An Irish army spokesman said it was a "viable" device, according to Britain's Press Association.
The army investigated a second suspicious device at a tram stop in the Inchicore section of Dublin, Sky News reported. However, this was later described as a hoax by an Irish army official.
Despite the security scares, the U.K. Foreign Office said the queen's historic four-day visit would continue as scheduled, NBC News reported.
The painstakingly choreographed visit is the first by a British monarch to the Republic of Ireland since the queen's grandfather, King George V, visited 100 years ago. It has been designed to highlight today's exceptionally strong Anglo-Irish relations and the slow blooming of peace in neighboring Northern Ireland following a three-decade conflict that left 3,700 dead.
But the discovery of the bomb outside Dublin and a coded warning by IRA dissidents on Monday about a possible bomb in London were stark reminders that a small minority remain violently opposed to continued British rule in Northern Ireland.
Image: Irish police in Dublin
Darren Staples / Reuters
Irish police officers question a group of people carrying posters in Dublin on Monday.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said the threat from dissidents was minimal because of extensive security arrangements.
"They've put in place a comprehensive security operation. You'll recall we've had American presidents here before, a pope," he said. "So obviously while there have been incidents, the Gardai (police) have been able to deal with those."
Some 8,500 police were lining the sections of Dublin where the queen and her husband Prince Philip plan to visit, the biggest security operation in the history of the Irish state. It will cost 26.2 million pounds ($42.6 million), The Guardian newspaper reported.
Queen honors rebel dead
The queen headed first to the official presidential residence for a welcome by Irish President Mary McAleese and Kenny.
Resplendent in a cloak of emerald green and a dress of St. Patrick's blue, the 85-year-old queen signed the visitors' book at the residence and was then greeted with a 21-gun salute and a band playing "God Save the Queen."
Beaming smiles by the queen and McAleese — a Belfast-born Catholic who has spent 14 years lobbying for Elizabeth II to visit — demonstrated genuine warmth between the two women, who have met several times before.
McAleese said 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.
After a lunch reception the queen changed into an ivory coat and hat and laid a wreath at Dublin's Garden of Remembrance to honor Ireland's rebel dead.
