Higgins: Wrong to wipe the slate clean

President Michael D Higgins began an official state visit to Britain yesterday with the head of state heralding a new era of relations between the two countries.

His extended four-day trip, three years after Queen Elizabeth visited Ireland, will include an address to the Houses of Parliament and a focus on the contribution Irish emigrants have made to British life.

On his departure, Mr Higgins said the trip — the first ever by Ireland’s head of state — was about remembering the past but also examining the capacity of the present and what can be done in the future to cement relations.