Queen visits Belfast to attend RIR disbandment parade

Queen Elizabeth II is in the North today for a parade to mark the disbandment of the Royal Irish Regiment's three locally recruited battalions.

Several thousand members of the RIR and its predecessor, the Ulster Defence Regiment, are attending the event at Balmoral Showgrounds in Belfast.

The RIR battalions are being disbanded as part of an ongoing demilitarisation programme following the end of the Troubles.

Around 60,000 men and women have served in the RIR and UDR since 1970, 274 of whom were killed by the IRA and other republican paramilitary groups.

Republicans are staging a protest at today's parade against the regiment's alleged record of collusion with loyalists.