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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.

"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.

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Looking at the world, it's easy to get discouraged. So I was unexpectedly heartened by this story today. Growing up as an Irish-American kid, I'd never imagined that "the troubles" would end in my lifetime. Ditto for apartheid. I'd also never dreamed that two guys could get married. These triumphs over (lack of) expectations give me hope.

So what gives you hope as you eye our troubled globe?

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ORIGINAL: Anaxagoras

I have a sense the IRA are doing this now because they have been riding particularly high in the polls in the Republic for the last six months or so, and seek to draw a line under their violent past. If they do they will likely become the second biggest party in the State. Shaking hands with the Queen would be a gesture big enough to do that.

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ORIGINAL: Politesub53
Edwynn. The current problem only goes back to the seventies. You could argue that historically it goes back way before the Armada, infact it has little to do with the Armada and more to do with the French if we are talking of Protestant/Catholics. At what point do you consider those in Ulster have a right to call it home, because as an American you are on sticky ground time wise unless you are a native, ie Indian.

You could even go further if you wish to look at history and go right back to the Picts and the Celts.

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ORIGINAL: Edwynn

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ORIGINAL: Anaxagoras
I have a sense the IRA are doing this now because they have been riding particularly high in the polls in the Republic for the last six months or so, and seek to draw a line under their violent past. If they do they will likely become the second biggest party in the State. Shaking hands with the Queen would be a gesture big enough to do that.

If Britain were not capable of acknowledging their immensely more violent and destructive past in this instance, however much side stepping heretofore, this might not have happened. This didn't start in the '60s or '70s, media misdirection aside. Just ask Jonathan Swift.

Maybe the fact that so many ex-pat Brits started so many Irish rebellions through the centuries should tell us something. We only do not call what transpired genocide because the millions lost were a result of gross ineptitude rather than willful intent for that many deaths, but the sheer numbers would qualify, if that be the standard. Many more deaths from outright starvation than from repressing rebellions. It's just the way of things that higher powers can never admit any fault publicly. If any meaningful acknowledgement had to take place via back channels for this to happen, then so be it.