TO MARK the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s State visit to Ireland, Minister for State Brian Hayes and the new British ambassador, Dominick Chilcott, yesterday opened a small commemorative exhibition of the events.
The exhibition at Dublin Castle, which is being run by the Office of Public Works (OPW), contains six large-scale displays, featuring photo and video montages of some of the highlights of the historic visit.
The display highlights the queen’s time spent at Áras an Úachtaráin, the Garden of Remembrance, the War Memorial Gardens, Farmleigh, Dublin Castle and the Rock of Cashel.
There are also several replica artefacts on show including the 16th-century Queen Elizabeth I’s Irish primer, the Cashel Crozier and the place setting and menu from the State banquet at Dublin Castle and the signed visitors’ book.
Mr Hayes said the exhibition was a reminder, a year later, of the great success of the queen’s visit to ireland, and “of the great friendship that now exists between Britain and Ireland”.
He said the “huge spinoff” for the country in terms of the tourism opportunity was extraordinary, recalling the widespread media coverage of the event abroad.
“Her trip really celebrated the very best of Irishness. It celebrated the best of what we can do in terms of welcoming people to this country, and it was fantastic because it took off a lot of the bad news – the difficulty, the depression on the economic front – off the headline story.”
Mr Chilcott said people who work in international affairs or politics often wonder if they will ever be part of history.
“I think all those people who were connected with last year’s State visit by the queen to Ireland were really taking part in something that was genuinely historical and transformatory,” he said.
The exhibition, which is open to the public free of charge, is situated in the Chapel Royal, located in the lower yard of the castle.
Also attending yesterday’s opening was Dr Tiede Herrema and his wife, Elisabeth.
Dr Herrema, the former managing director of the Co Limerick Ferenka factory, was kidnapped by the IRA on his way to work in 1975 and held for two weeks, in an event which transfixed the nation.
The 90-year-old and his wife are on a short trip to Ireland which will include a visit to Áras an Úachtaráin to meet President Michael D Higgins.
