Former IRA leader toasts the Queen

The Queen has said that Britain and Ireland shall “no longer allow our past to ensnare our future” at a historic state banquet in honour of President Michael D Higgins.

The banquet was held at the Queen’s home, Windsor Castle, where the President is staying with his wife Sabina, and was made all the more significant due to the presence of Northern Ireland deputy first minister and former IRA commander Martin McGuinness — a move unthinkable only a decade ago.

The highly successful state visit to Ireland by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh in May 2011 paved the way for the return by President Higgins and made the attendance of Mr McGuinness at the royals’ home, the latest in a series of recent milestones in Anglo-Irish relations.