Royal Wedding: The Irish Guestlist

Cardinal Sean Brady, the Archbishop of Armagh and Catholic primate of All-Ireland, will attend this week's royal wedding in London of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

It's the first time since the Reformation in the 16th century that the head of the Irish catholic church has been invited to attend a royal wedding.

The ground-breaking invitation is seen as a reward for his contribution to the peace process.

Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper will also be present at Westminster Abbey for the nuptials.

Cardinal Brady told the Irish Independent that he was "pleasurably surprised" by the invitation and he would now be giving thought to sending the royal couple "an appropriate gift".

A handful of other Irish people will be among the 1,700 congregation at the wedding.

Captain Max Dooher, who was born in the west of Ireland, will be one of four Irish guards present, how have just returned from a tour of duty in the Helmand province of Afghanistan.

Captain Dooher, 28, was picked to represent the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, of whom Prince William is Colonel, because he trained with the prince.

His duty will be to line the entrance to the Abbey along with more than one thousand other soldiers for the occasion.

Canadian businessman Galen Weston and his Irish-born wife Hilary, who own Brown Thomas in Ireland and Selfridges in London, are among the invited guests.

The First Minister of Northern Ireland Peter Robinson and his wife Irish will be there too.

Ireland rugby captain Brian O'Driscoll and his wife actress Amy Huberman were also invited to the wedding of the year.

But O'Driscoll turned down the invitation because the Leinster Rugby team are playing in a Heineken Cup semi-final against Toulouse in France.

We won't be going because rugby takes precedence over everything else," he said.