As Queen Elizabeth II was touching down in a Dublin airport on May 17 for the start of her four-day visit to Ireland, the Irish people were holding their collective breath. The Queen’s visit was being billed as a sign of the end of centuries of friction between the two countries — and one which most Irish were praying would go well, as they could little afford any more harm to their nation’s reputation given the bad economic news that has marred it in recent months.
But before the visit even began, tensions were raised when a pipe bomb was discovered on a bus in Maynooth, about 16 miles from Dublin. Then on the first day of the Queen’s trip, violence broke out as a few hundred rioters threw bricks, fireworks and full soda cans at police while blocks away the British head of state made a hugely symbolic gesture in laying a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance, which commemorates those who died in the Irish struggle for independence.
