Security High As Queen Touches Down

The biggest security operation ever launched in Ireland has been put in place for the visit of Britain's Queen Elizabeth who begins an historic four day visit today (Tuesday).

Around 8,000 Gardai and 2,000 members of the Defence Forces will be involved in making sure the vocal minority opposed to her visit do not succeed in disrupting it with a terrorist attack.

It's the first time a sitting British monarch has visited Ireland since independence, and the Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the visit represented the start of a new era between both countries.

The formal State visit will include visits to the Dail, Aras an Uachtarain and a state dinner at Dublin Castle during which the Queen will deliver a keynote speech that is expected to touch on the troubled history between the two nations.

She is also due to visit two sites of major significance to Irish republicans - Croke Park, scene of the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre, and the Garden of Remembrance, built in honor of those who died fighting against the British Crown.

As well as cementing progress in the Northern Ireland peace process, it's hoped the occasion can offer a tourism boost to Ireland.

The UK is Ireland's most important tourist market, and her visit also includes trips to the national horse stud in Kildare and the English Market in Cork.

The Queen will be accompanied by her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, British Prime Minister David Cameron and British Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Four thousand Gardai will be on duty at any one time, with officers working round the clock in two 12-hour shifts.

Royal protection officers from the Metropolitan Police will also be on duty in Ireland.

Demonstrations are expected, but onlookers will not be allowed anywhere near the key destinations on her visit.

"Where people want to protest, they will be allowed to protest, within reason," said Supt John Gilligan, "Gardai are ready if necessary to deal with any issues that arise."

Riot squads will be on standby and the Gardai have taken loan of two mobile water cannons from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Surveillance has been stepped up on known dissident republicans and there have been a number of arrests in advance of her visit.

"The visit of the Queen is symbolically a healing of the past and facing with courage to the future," said Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore said he believed people would understand and tolerate the inconvenience that the security arrangements cause.

"We have to see the visit as an historic event in itself, but also as an opportunity that will help us build economic recovery in the country," he said.

"I think it is an extraordinary moment in Irish history," said President Mary McAleese, who has been instrumental in creating the conditions for the visit.

She has spent much of her 14 years in office building bridges between nationalists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, and has often expressed her wish that Queen Elizabeth would visit Ireland before her second term finished.

Mrs McAleese said the visit is "a phenomenal sign and signal of the success of the peace process and absolutely the right moment for us to welcome on to Irish soil Her Majesty the Queen, the head of state of our immediate next-door neighbours, the people with whom we are forging a new future, on very different terms from the past and I think that visit will send the message that we are, both jurisdictions, determined to make the future a much, much better place."