The Queen should be asked to pay for “bed and breakfast” to cushion the cost of her State visit on hard-pressed Irish taxpayers, it has been claimed.

FROM Ajai Chopra and Olli Rehn to Barack Obama and now the Queen — our visitors’ book is showing gradual signs of improvement.

BRITAIN’S Queen Elizabeth is scheduled to visit the Rock of Cashel, and the Irish National Stud and confirmation of her intention to visit Cork will provide a welcome boost for some of the country’s most celebrated tourist attractions.

HISTORY, so it is said, is defined by the songs of the victors. And that is one reason why, as we approach the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme next Saturday, more attention is given to a republican hymn in the shape of a film produced by an Englishman about the War of Independence than to a conflict in which immeasurably more Irishmen fought and died.