Read more: Queen Elizabeth, Obama and now Bill Clinton confirm Irish visits
The Queen is to visit Croke Parknext month to watch exhibition hurling and football matches at the home of the GAA.
Queen Elizabeth will be guest of honor at the very ground where British troops shot 14 innocent players and spectators dead at the match in 1920.
Dublin schoolchildren will play in hurling and football matches in front of the Queen during her Royal visit in May, the first by any British monarch in a hundred years.
Croke Park is on a preliminary agenda for the visit currently being considered by Irish government and Buckingham Palace officials.
Historian Tim Pat Coogan believes the appearance of the English monarch at the home of the GAA will be hugely symbolic.
He told the Sunday Times: “They are obviously trying to make as friendly an overtone as possible.
“It is a visit drawn up in the era of John Major, Tony Blair and current Prime Minister David Cameron.
“They have apologized for the Famine and accepted responsibility for Bloody Sunday so they are trying to keep it on that level.
“With Croke Park, she would have been confronting Irish history head-on had the English rugby team not come in the meantime.
“That defanged the issue. I take it she won’t be throwing the ball in or showing how they play shinty at Balmoral.”
The Sunday Times reveals a number of potential destinations for Queen Elizabeth when she follows in the footsteps of her grandfather King George V who visited Ireland in 1911.
Senior government sources have hinted that the Queen will visit Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, a memorial to those who died in the cause of Irish freedom, and the Islandbridge Gardens dedicated to the 49,000 Irish soldiers who died in the first World War.
The Guinness brewery in Dublin is another high profile destination under consideration.
A keen horse enthusiast, Queen Elizabeth may visit the Irish National Stud on the Curragh, the Aga Khan’s stud in Kildare and the Coolmore Stud in Tipperary.
The Rock of Cashel, the Book of Kells and the English Market in Cork are other well known tourist attractions on the proposed itinerary.
Irish president Mary McAleese will welcome the Queen’s party to Ireland on May 17th and will hold a state banquet in her honor at Dublin Castle on May 18th.
The British Embassy refused to comment on plans for the visit. “Any reports at this stage remain just speculation,” said the Embassy’s press office.
An Irish government spokesman declined to comment in advance of the itinerary being fully agreed.
Read more: Queen Elizabeth, Obama and now Bill Clinton confirm Irish visits
Comments