Visits

Ireland is having a very big week. Queen Elizabeth is arriving on Tuesday, and President Obama is arriving next week. Road closures, traffic, security, bomb scares, and Guards up the wazoo.

A few weeks ago, a local hotel put up 50 foot posters of both the Queen (this picture above) and President Obama. Three days later, the hotel removed the posters. Rumor has it, the hotel was getting death threats, and it wasn”t over President Obama.

{A little more information here from the Irish Times.}

Yesterday, driving through the City Centre, I saw an inflatable dinghy cruising the River Liffey with two Guards and two scuba divers. For weeks, the Civil Defense Explosive Division has been working overtime, disabling viable bombs all around the city.  The trash cans in the City Centre have been replaced with bins you can see into more easily, and suspected (or known) republican dissidents are being casino detained up to ten times a day under the XXX Act.

I couldn”t pretend to completely understand the complicated history and emotions wrapped up in this week”s visit by the Queen. What I do know is that the history is recent, for many people, the emotions are still very raw, and there will be a lot of people holding their breath until HRH gets back on her plane.

At which point I hope we”ll all look back on this week with pride, that the Irish stood tall and strong, and gracefully moved forward into a new era.

And once we”ve done that, we can switch right into swooning over President Obama. If the President is finding a tough crowd in America, he”ll enjoy a nice 24 hours of sheer celebrity in Ireland.