Martin McGuinness, the deputy first minister of Northern Ireland and former IRA commander has met and shook hands with the Queen. The meeting took place at a charity event in Belfast on Wednesday morning.
The image of the handshake has been touted by observers as iconic and a symbol of progress and reconciliation. Sinn Fein quoted McGuinness as telling the Queen that their meeting was a “powerful signal that peace-building requires leadership”.
The BBC’s Ireland Correspondent has said that although “the image will help Sinn Fein reach out to voters, previously reluctant to support a party linked to the IRA... the picture could lose them a small number of party members for whom a meeting with the British head of state is a step too far.”
Observers reported that Prince Phillip was seen to be avoiding engaging in conversation with McGuinness, who was a leading member of the IRAwhen the Queen's cousin, Lord Mountbatten was assassinated in 1972.
More than 3,000 people died during The Troubles between the 1960s and 1998, when Irish Republicans, including the IRA, fought to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland.
Martin McGuiness visited the Vanni in 2006 as the chief negotiator of Sinn Fein and met with an LTTE delegation, that included the then political head of the LTTE, SP Thamilchelvan.