Queen to meet ex-IRA man on Northern Ireland trip

Queen Elizabeth II arrived in Northern Ireland on Tuesday for a visit that will include a historic meeting with deputy first minister Martin McGuinness, a former IRA leader. Hundreds of people lined the streets of Enniskillen to welcome the queen and her husband Prince Philip after they arrived by helicopter at the nearby airport. At the start of a two-day visit to mark the queen's diamond jubilee, the royal couple attended a service of thanksgiving at Enniskillen's St Macartin's Church of Ireland Cathedral with 700 worshippers. In a gesture of inclusiveness, senior clerics from several denominations took part in the service, including the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, Sean Brady. Enniskillen was the site of a massive IRA bombing that killed 11 people in 1987, one of the worst atrocities of the three decades of sectarian violence known as "the Troubles" that largely ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement. The queen was to meet relatives of some of the victims after the service. In a landmark moment for the peace process, the British monarch will on Wednesday shake hands with McGuinness, whose Sinn Fein party is the political wing of the now-defunct Irish Republican Army paramilitary group. "This is about stretching out the hand of peace and reconciliation to Queen Elizabeth who represents hundreds of thousands of unionists in the north," McGuinness said ahead of the queen's arrival on Tuesday. "It is about me representing my party, wishing to show the unionist people in the north that we are prepared to respect what they believe in." But he added: "We are still Irish republicans. After I meet with Queen Elizabeth, I will still be an Irish republican." The trip to mark the queen's 60th year on the throne will also see the royal couple attend a garden party on Wednesday with 22,000 invited guests in the grounds of Belfast's Parliament Buildings, known as Stormont. The queen's visits to Northern Ireland are normally kept secret until her arrival, and the advance announcement of the trip is another sign of the improved security situation in the province. The meeting with McGuinness at Belfast's Lyric theatre is separate from the diamond jubilee celebrations. Michael D. Higgins, the president of the Republic of Ireland, will also be present. It is the latest step in McGuinness's journey from militant to peacemaker, which saw him take a leading role in both the Troubles and the peace process that followed. Sinn Fein continues to reject British rule of Northern Ireland. Last year the queen and her husband made a landmark visit to the Republic of Ireland, the first by a British monarch since it won independence in 1922. The trip required the republic's biggest-ever security operation, but through some highly symbolic gestures -- including speaking in Irish -- she melted away enough post-colonial angst to permit a walkabout. In 1979 the IRA assassinated Prince Philip's uncle Louis Mountbatten by bombing his boat while he was on holiday in the Republic of Ireland. The queen and Philip have been touring Britain in celebration of her diamond jubilee, while other royals are travelling the Commonwealth, from Canada to Tuvalu.