Royal destinations:The changed nature of the relationship between Britain and Ireland will be most apparent in Dublin Castle on the evening of Wednesday, May 18th.
There, inside the seat of centuries of British colonial rule in Ireland, the President of Ireland will host, for the first time since independence, a State dinner for a reigning British monarch. St Patrick's Hall will be pregnant with expectation; everyone will want to say the right thing. The content of speeches will be parsed and analysed, line by line.
President McAleese and Queen Elizabeth will greet dinner guests in the Drawing Room, home to portraits of Queen Victoria and her consort, Prince Albert. A pre-dinner reception will be held in the Throne Room.
During their remarks at dinner in St Patrick's Hall (the only occasion during her visit on which the Queen will speak publicly), both heads of state are likely to seek to emphasise both the ties that bind as well as the distance both countries have travelled since January 16th, 1922.
On that day, Chief of Staff of the Irish National Army, Michael Collins, marched into the Castle and accepted its surrender, in effect the surrender of British rule in Ireland, from Edmund Bernard FitzAlan-Howard, the 1st Viscount FitzAlan of Derwent - the last Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. As they did their business, the Union Jack flag flying over the Castle was lowered for the last time and the Tricolour run up in its place.
The location of the Castle, on a strategically advantageous hill overlooking the Liffey with commanding views both upstream and downstream, was a place of settlement long predating the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169.
The castle was a typical Norman construction - a central courtyard without a keep, or tower, bounded by tall defensive walls, each with a circular tower. Over the centuries, the interior was filled with wooden buildings. Most were destroyed in a fire in 1684.
What is seen in the Castle today is mainly the incremental product of construction during the Georgian and Victorian periods.