President Mary McAleese is to visit Hungary this weekend to help the country mark the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
The three-week uprising was a nationwide revolt against the authoritarian communist government and its Soviet-imposed policies.
Mrs McAleese will attend an official welcome ceremony, gala cultural performance and dinner in Budapest tomorrow hosted by President Laszlo Solyom and prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany. On Monday, she will lay a white rose at the Memorial of Victims in Kossuth Square.
She will also be present at a reading of the Budapest '56 Freedom Declaration in the Hungarian Parliament.
The revolution began on October 23rd, 1956, as a student demonstration, but spread quickly across Hungary. The new government withdrew from the pro-Soviet Warsaw Pact and pledged to hold free elections, but the uprising was crushed.
President McAleese, who will travel with her husband, Dr Martin McAleese, will also attend a reception for the Irish community in Hungary before returning to Dublin on Monday evening.
Hungary joined the EU with nine other countries on May 1st, 2004.