GERMAN REACTION:QUEEN ELIZABETH'S historic visit to Ireland has caught the imagination of the Germans, who rank alongside the Irish as Europe's greatest secret monarchists.
"Pride and Tears" is how the influential Frankfurter Allgemeineheadlined yesterday's half-page report on how, "full of confidence, the Irish have greeted the head of the former 'occupying power'."
After bringing German readers up to speed on the sources of Anglo-Irish tensions - "the bloody subjugation of the Tudors and Cromwell", the Famine and Partition - its correspondent praised the flawless organisation of the visit.
"The military band plays God Save the Queenwith a soft Irish feeling . . . even the kilometres of barricades along Dublin's streets gleam as if brand new or newly coated in zinc".
Cheering, clapping crowds are rewarded with "a glimpse of the waving, gloved, thankful hand".
German news agency DPA, which is carried by many regional newspapers, reported that "the Queen has enchanted the Irish - almost all".
"With Queen Elizabeth's visit the Anglo-Irish relations appear normal - just about."
On the visit to the Guinness brewery, Sternmagazine noted that "while the 85-year-old monarch showed no sign of wanting to try a sip, her 89-year-old husband paused for a little longer at the glass before, in the end, standing firm".
The Rheinische Postcalled the untouched glass "the only shadow on a perfectly staged day".
Austria's D er Standardreported how "for the first time in nearly 1,000 years, an English or British monarch has not come as a conqueror or colonial ruler but as a friendly neighbour.
"The State visit is the sealing of a good friendship rather than just the beginning," noted correspondent Martin Alioth.
Swiss television noted in a report that "even if no explicit apology could be heard from the Queen, the charm offensive has worked".
The headline in the Neue Zürcher Zeitungdaily reported: "Irish-British Animosity Buried".