Historic meeting may pave way for royal visit

THE historic meeting of President Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth II in the North yesterday could clear the way for an unprecedented State visit, Mrs McAleese said last night.

No British monarch has made such a trip since George V went to Dublin in 1911, a decade before partition.

Mrs McAleese had already met the queen at a reception in London earlier this year, but it was yesterday’s arrangement in the North which was so potentially significant.