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Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the Duke of Edinburgh made a state visit to the Republic of Ireland from 17 May to 20 May 2011, at the invitation of the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese. It was the first visit by a British monarch to the area that is now the Republic of Ireland since the 1911 tour by Elizabeth's grandfather King George V, when the entire island of Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The intervening period saw the 1916 proclamation of the Irish Republic during the unsuccessful Easter Rising against British rule in Ireland. A military conflict from January 1919 led ultimately to the partition of Ireland in December 1922. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, while the Irish Free State (renamed Ireland in 1937) became a self-governing and then fully independent Dominion within the British Commonwealth. In 1949, the Irish state withdrew from the Commonwealth and abolished its last links to the monarchy on the formal declaration of the Republic of Ireland. While the visit was notable for being the first by the Queen to the Republic, she had been visited in London by President Mary Robinson in May 1993 and then several times by President McAleese since 1997. The visit was seen as a symbolic normalisation of Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom relations following the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which settled most outstanding territorial disputes between the states, including the abandonment by the Republic of its territorial claim to Northern Ireland, thereby removing a major obstacle to a royal visit. Arrangements for the visit included the largest security operation in the history of the Republic of Ireland.〔 During the visit, the Queen visited sites of significance for Irish nationalism in Dublin, such as the Garden of Remembrance and Croke Park, scene of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre. She also delivered a widely praised speech on the history of relations between the two countries. The visit was criticised by Irish republican and socialist groups. Sinn Féin, the United Left Alliance, some independent TDs and several smaller republican and socialist groups were opposed to the visit, with protests organised at locations on the Queen's itinerary. In April 2014, President Michael D. Higgins reciprocated the Queen's visit when he became the first Irish president to make a state visit to the United Kingdom. ==Visit announced== The Queen's visit was formally announced by Buckingham Palace and Áras an Uachtaráin simultaneously on 4 March 2011. The Queen's announcement stated: The announcement was widely expected as both governments had anticipated the visit publicly for some time. The British ambassador to Ireland, David Reddaway, had described the visit as "imminent" in 2009. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Queen Elizabeth II's state visit to the Republic of Ireland」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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