Anticipation and fretful tension melt away with welcome smiles

IT was a day when the world turned a little differently.

The Union Jack fluttered in the breeze at the gates of Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish and British national anthems were aired in the summer drizzle, and Queen Elizabeth II finally arrived after months of waiting.

The queen became the first ruling British monarch to visit Ireland in more than 100 years since her grandfather last came here all that time ago. After more than a century of waiting, no one was going to quibble if she was a few minutes late. The queen’s car parked outside the Áras a couple of minutes behind schedule, yet everyone was back as per the timetable 20 minutes later.