LONDON (AP) — The Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party says one of its leaders, Martin McGuinness, will meet Queen Elizabeth II next week — a once-unthinkable symbol of progress toward peace in Northern Ireland.

McGuinness, a former IRA commander, has been invited to attend an event with the queen in his role as deputy first minister of Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government.

Neither Sinn Fein nor Buckingham Palace revealed detailed plans for the meeting. Britain's Press Association news agency said McGuiness and the queen would meet and shake hands in a private room at the beginning of the engagement. But even if it amounts to little more than a quick handshake, the meeting will have great symbolic value.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, will visit Northern Ireland on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of her United Kingdom-wide tour celebrating 60 years on the throne.

Sinn Fein leaders declined to meet the queen last year during her first state visit to the neighboring Republic of Ireland, arguing it was still too soon after the end of decades of conflict and bloodshed.

But party President Gerry Adams said Friday the party has decided McGuinness should meet the monarch, a decision that is sure to meet opposition from some Irish republicans, who want to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

"We don't have to do it. We're doing it because it's the right thing to do, despite the fact that it will cause difficulties for our own folk," Adams said.

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"But it's good for Ireland. It's good for this process we're trying to develop. It's the right time and the right reason," he added.

Buckingham Palace said it understood McGuinness had been invited to Wednesday's event in Belfast for the Co-operation Ireland charity, which works to bring Catholic and Protestant communities together.

It was a sign of progress toward peace that the royal visit was announced several weeks in advance.

The queen has regularly visited Northern Ireland over the past four decades of bloodshed, but none of her previous visits had been announced even a minute ahead of time to minimize the risk of attack.

Threats against the royal family have been real, as evidenced by the Provisional IRA's 1979 assassination of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip's 79-year-old uncle. Several small IRA splinter groups still launch gun and bomb attacks in Northern Ireland.

But the situation has been transformed since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 brought a virtual end to a conflict, known as "the Troubles," that saw about 3,000 deaths over three decades.

Political reconciliation has advanced rapidly since 2005, when the Provisional IRA renounced violence and disarmed, and 2007, when Sinn Fein entered a power-sharing government alongside Northern Ireland's British Protestant majority. Their unlikely coalition has proved remarkably stable.

The meeting with McGuinness follows the queen's historic visit to the Ireland in May 2011, the first by a British monarch since the republic gained its independence from Britain almost a century ago.

During the trip she laid a wreath at a monument to Irish rebels who fought against British rule, spoke a few words in Irish during a speech, and expressed sympathy "to all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past."

McGuinness has since said he was struck by these gestures of reconciliation.

Peter Hain, a former Northern Ireland secretary in the British government, said the meeting is "of huge historic importance."

"It does not mean Sinn Fein have departed one inch from their commitment to an independent Ireland. Nor does it mean the queen will forget the assassination of her uncle, Lord Mountbatten," Hain said.

"But it does show in shining terms how everybody is turning their backs on the past of horror and violence and moving towards peace between previously bitter enemies," he added.

Please, let's think a while.

Meaning?

The queen can understand and forgive the past. Heavy on the understand.
Anything else you don't understand ? Some call it, peace.

**** the queen and that rat thats meetin her hope they both die in pain

Because peace is such a horrible thing.

[/sarc]

Peace could have been achieved centuries ago if the "Queens" and "Kings" would stop trying to rule over the people who want freedom.

Is it really "peace" or is it a slave bowing down in defeat to his master?

Here comes the Queen
and her royal court.
Her servants are waiting
within the fort.
No one will stand
in the way of her power.
The time is at hand,
and dark is the hour.

She comes to deliver us,
(and that was the plan.)
Oppression and ruthlessness
Is ruling our land.

With reptile eyes,
Cold blooded and cruel
she spreads the lies
and continues to rule.

Here comes the Queen
with her vampire sons
and they drink the blood
of the little ones.

So watch your children
and hide your gold;
Here comes the Queen
and her blood runs cold.

Oh yeh, these look like really nice people.
Note the queen's reptile eyes. No, they have not been altered. I got this picture off of their own website.

Note the green skin on your master prince. His reptilian scales are showing. No, this picture was not altered either.

Why can't Ireland have a sovereign state?

Everyone claims that Israel has the right to be a state, and anyone who thinks differently gets labeled anti-Semitic.

So what's the difference?



Sinn Fein seeks the establishment of a new Ireland based on sustainable social and economic development; genuine democracy, participation, equality and justice at all levels of the economy and society; and a lasting and meaningful peace with unity of purpose and action.

Specifically:

Sinn Fein is an Irish Republican party. Its objective is to end British rule in Ireland.

It seeks national self-determination, the unity and independence of Ireland as a sovereign state.

Sinn Fein is committed to the transformation of Irish society and to a negotiated and democratic settlement. It knows that peace is not simply the absence of violence. Real peace - a lasting peace - is based on democracy, justice, freedom and equality.

Sinn Fein has a vision that sees beyond the present conflict and beyond the present phase of Irish history. The party's vision foresees the unity of the people of this island. It is a vision for the redistribution of wealth, for the well-being of the aged, for the advancement of youth, for the liberation of women and for the protection of Irish children. It is a vision for a free Ireland and a free people.

Sinn Fein is committed to its peace strategy. It has sought with honesty and integrity to construct a peace process which reaches out and embraces everyone on the island on the basis of equality. Its objective must be for an agreement that will earn the allegiance and respect of all sections of the Irish people.

(Waiting the arrival of Mildred Ratched.)

Sinn Fein is nothing more then a terrorist orginization no different then Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbullah or TTP.

Those IRA bastards killed her relative, Lord Mountbatten. This must be difficult for Her Majesty.

P.S. That reptilian rubbish only makes you appear insane.

Most of Ireland is a republic. Northern Ireland, traditionally, is the protestant bastion that gives allegiance to the United Kingdom, while the predominantly Catholic south don't.



Because the population is divided on the issue. Remember, most of Ireland is independent.





Not everyone in Ireland (whether Northern or the republic) supports Sinn Fein (or trusts them). There are atrocities committed by the IRA that still burn in people's minds. A lot of my friends are Irish (Australia is the target for a lot of Irish migrants) and they universally loathe the IRA, Gerry Adams & the Sinn Fein. Not all Irish are militant, or rebels. It's a very complicated issue and this current accord took years and many lives to achieve.

People who fight for their freedom are not terrorists. If that were the case then all of our own founding fathers who fought for our independence from them would be called "terrorists." That includes all of your ancestors who fought for independence from England.

As a matter of fact, if we had lost that war they would all have been hanged..... AS TRAITORS TO THE CROWN.

Only to people who are in a trance who bow down to them.

I hope he doesn't bow to the queen.

What causes "commoners" (that's what they call us.)to think that the royal family is better than anyone that they should have to bow down to them??

GET OFF OF YOUR KNEES SLAVES.

But you would probably bow down to the queen.

I do not bow to the queen.

Most atrocities were invented by the Satan worshiping Cabal. It is their M.O. One of their tactics is to commit atrocities and blame them on someone else who they want us to hate.

So I prefer not to believe them or you. No one can tell me who to hate or why.

I doubt it. They have no feelings or compassion for anyone. Even their own family. Look how they treated Princess Diana.

Besides they have killed thousands to every one of theirs who were killed.

Her husband, Prince Charles, only needed her and used her to produce more offspring for their royal bloodline. It was an arranged marriage. As soon as she produced two sons he went back to his long time lover.

They are not nice people.

Princess Diana, talking to one of her friends, told her friend "They are not human."

She meant that literally.

Good Morning Jeannie

I have never thought about Mountbatten and the Diana situation in that light but now that you mention it, that makes absolute sense.


As far as Charles and Diana..yes she was used like a brood mare to produce heirs to the throne.

The BloodLine has to be maintained at ALL COSTS.



Diana was treated like dirt.

appear?