Britain's Queen honours Irish nationalists

Queen Elizabeth honoured Irish people killed fighting for independence from Britain on Tuesday in a powerful gesture of reconciliation few people would have believed possible even in recent times. The queen laid a wreath at Dublin's Garden of Remembrance, Ireland's monument to its fallen heroes, before a hushed crowd of dignitaries, soldiers and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, whose uncle was killed by militant Irish nationalists in 1979.
The visit, the first by a British monarch since Ireland won independence from London in 1921, is designed to show how warm neighbourly relations have replaced centuries of animosity although security was tight after a home-made bomb was found. The British national anthem 'God Save the Queen' rang out in one of Ireland's most sacred national shrines as representatives of Protestant paramilitary groups, which once targeted Catholics in a bitter conflict for control of Northern Ireland, watched on from among the hand-picked crowd. Most Irish people have welcomed the visit although the streets were eerily empty of the usual cheering crowds that greet the queen elsewhere because of security fears.
"My mother would have loved to have lived to see this day," said Alex Wrafter, an unemployed 67-year whose mother moved from London to just south of the Northern Irish border in 1939. "I don't think she would ever have believed it but I think it's extraordinarily important. The past needs to be put where it belongs." A 1998 deal ending Irish nationalists' guerrilla war against British rule of Northern Ireland paved the way for the sojourn but threats from militant republican groups opposed to the peace process have kept the city on edge.
A makeshift bomb was found in a bus headed for Dublin late on Monday. It was destroyed in a controlled explosion by the army in Maynooth, 25 km (15 miles) from Dublin, after a telephone warning to police. The queen's visit has prompted Ireland's largest-ever security operation. Snipers took up positions around the Garden of Remembrance and some 4,000 police officers, backed by 2,000 soldiers, patrolled the capital.
Around 200 protesters threw bricks, bottles and fireworks at police and were pushed back with riot shields and batons. A hardcore of about 50 stayed on after the queen left the monument chanting "Brits out" and hurling missiles. In a second demonstration close to the Garden of Remembrance, protestors brandished placards with "Britain Out of Ireland" and "Irish Blood on English Hands" written on them and chanted anti-British slogans.