Monarch chose to wear green to compliment host country
The British monarch chose the colour in the first symbolic gesture of what will be an unprecedented and dramatic stay in the state — the first by a British monarch.
She wore a jade green coat and hat as she emerged from a flight which touched down on time at Baldonnel Aerodrome ahead of an official greeting by President Mary McAleese at her residence in the Phoenix Park, Áras an Uachtaráin. On official trips the queen often compliments host nations by incorporating national colours or emblems.
The sovereign, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, was escorted down the red carpet at Baldonnel to a motorcade, past an Irish Air Corps guard of honour to accept flowers from eight-year-old Rachel Fox, from Dun Laoghaire, south Dublin.
At the gates leading to the Áras the Irish Tricolour and Union flag flew side by side.
The hallway to the ballroom in the president’s residence, where the queen will sign a visitors’ book, was also lined with the flags of the two states.
The queen’s escort to the Áras included 33 green Honda motorbikes with green, red and black tricolour flags of the Second Cavalry Squadron, representing the 32 counties of Ireland, plus one with the Union flag.
Up to 6,000 police and soldiers were on duty across Dublin as part of unprecedented measures to protect the royal couple and thwart any possible attack by dissident republicans, who also plan to stage a number of protests in the capital, one close to the Garden of Remembrance.
There were several security alerts in the city, including one in the north of Dublin shortly before the queen’s plane touched down. There were also threats made forcing courthouses to be searched and cleared in Dundalk, Monaghan and Drogheda. No explosive devices were found.
Riot police maintained order at two protests on streets several hundred metres from the garden. The largest police presence ever seen in the country was deployed the entire length of the route as the queen and President Mary McAleese travelled for the commemoration.
