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President Obama and Queen Elizabeth to visit Ireland the same week

Security nightmare with possibly only 24 hours between royal and presidential visits

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Saturday, March 19, 2011, 7:34 AM

Updated Saturday, March 19, 2011, 7:34 AM

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US President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace

Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore has announced that United States President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II will visit Ireland within the same week in May.

Gilmore, who was meeting with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Friday, said Obama will arrive in Ireland within 24 to 48 hours after the Queen leaves.

The arrival of two of the world’s top VIPS, represents a security and logistical nightmare for the Irish authorities. It is rare that an international visitor to Ireland commands massive security, and on this occasion, there will be two within a very short space of time.

The Queen’s historic visit will take place on May 17 - 20. The Queen's visit to Ireland will tbe her first aborad after her grandson Prince William‘s marriage to Kate Middleton at Westminister Abbey.

According to radio station Newstalk 106, it is most likely that Obama will arrive in Ireland on the 22nd. Officially there has been no dates given for the President's visit, although he did tell the new Irish Leader Enda Kenny that he intended on visiting in May.

Yesterday at the traditional handing over of the bowl of shamrocks in the White House, President Obama commented on the special relationship between the Irish and Americans. He himself has roots in Ireland having recent found out that his "great, great, great, great, great grandfather," Falmouth Kearney, left Offaly for the U.S. during the Great Famine.

He said, "Every year at this time we're reminded just how many strands of green are woven into our American story... In many ways, what it means to be Irish helped define what it means to be America ... in the years ahead may our sons and daughters only grow closer."

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73 Comments

15 - 73 | See all comments

antoman | Mar 23, 2011, 01:59 PM EDT

For the record.I've genuinely stood on St.Patricks bridge and watched a seal eating a mullet,nice and relaxed.Layed back in the water the fish between its paws,hands,flippers.There were a good few people watching.

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sirpeter | Mar 23, 2011, 09:22 AM EDT

Cromwell..Okay,I'm not a grammar nazi. It seems "you you" can't use paragraphs. Hmm. No I don't think you are an English Professor either. Well your off to a good start.

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Cromwell | Mar 22, 2011, 10:45 PM EDT

Okay. It seems you you can't use paragraphs. Hmm.

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Cromwell | Mar 22, 2011, 10:44 PM EDT

Okay, I'm not a grammar nazi, and I'm certainly no English Professor, but the standard of grammar in these posts is totally appalling. At least use paragraphs. I apologise if I have offended anyone.

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sirpeter | Mar 22, 2011, 10:54 AM EDT

antoman..Feckin' hell..Look at the dopey head on him..Here la..Take the club..I'll keep him occupied..When you get close!! Give him a good dawk!! Bate the basta*d..Bate him hard!!!Bate him like you're batin'a few fecking eejit's on IC. Dowtcha biy!!

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antoman | Mar 22, 2011, 10:29 AM EDT

Sirpeter-don't look now but that seal is back.You stand here on the bridge and converse with him and I'll creep over and shimmy down the ladder and do a Canada on him.We'll be eating like eskimo's for a week bioy! :)

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sirpeter | Mar 22, 2011, 09:48 AM EDT

antoman..You're back with your mutt.He doesn't look to happy.You must have half drowned the fecker in the fountain. Here la..I'll give him a Capital Chucky wing..I was keeping them warm for us in my pocket next to my--Ba..WHAT!! What are you looking at me like that for? They'll be grand!!!

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sirpeter | Mar 22, 2011, 09:39 AM EDT

@barneyjo..As pogroms go,which were all the rage across Europe.Russia been good at it and Germany taking it to a professional level and willing to have a very high gas bill.(Black humour taking over..sorry)Kicking a bunch of Jews in the kneecaps and calling them nasty names is hardly a pogrom. No one was seriously hurt or killed. Even the Jews would laugh at that pogrom.As Antoman and I know.Limerick is a special needs city.(More Black Humour)They don't have the name "stab city" for nothing.

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sirpeter | Mar 22, 2011, 09:13 AM EDT

@barneyjo..Ahhh come on!! When I make a statement like that.I'm speaking in general terms. I'm not saying we are saints.BUT when it comes to pogroms in comparison to most European countries we were very mild and it was only in Limerick from what I can see.You can't pick out a few bad eggs and tar the whole country as anti-semitic.In 1904 a young Catholic priest, Father John Creagh, of the Redemptorist order, delivered a fiery sermon castigating Jews for their rejection of Christ, being usurers and allies of the Freemasons then persecuting the Church in France, taking over the local economy, selling shoddy goods at inflated prices, to be paid for in installments. He urged Catholics "not to deal with the Jews."Later, after eighty Jews had been driven from their homes, Creagh was disowned by his superiors saying that: religious persecution had no place in Ireland.The Limerick Pogrom was the economic boycott waged against the small Jewish community for over two years. Keogh suggests the name derives from their previous Lithuanian experience even though no one was killed or seriously injured.Many went to Cork, intending to embark on ships from Cobh to travel to America. The people of Cork welcomed them into their homes. Church halls were opened for the refugees, many of whom remained. Gerald Goldberg, a son of this migration, became Lord Mayor of Cork in 1977,and the Marcus brothers, David and Louis, grandchildren of the pogrom, would become hugely influential in Irish literature and Irish film, respectively. So where was the pogrom in Cork?

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barneyjo | Mar 21, 2011, 08:15 PM EDT

@everyone - the last two brief posts are not mine, though posted in my name. However in respect of my comments about our own "home-grown" pogroms, history has noted these events having occurred in Limerick, Cork and Waterford in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Not quite a case of the "pot calling the kettle black" but close!!

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barneyjo | Mar 21, 2011, 07:45 PM EDT

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barneyjo | Mar 21, 2011, 07:45 PM EDT

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antoman | Mar 21, 2011, 07:10 PM EDT

Irish DNA LOL!I knew there was a good reason in America that us Irish are labeled as illegal aliens.Ye all figured out that we are the survivors of Atlantis and that every Irishman keeps a two seat flying disk buried in his garden under the potatoes for transport to the mothership when it finally arrives.Oh dear you've rumbled us Barneyjo.I guess there's no point in me asking you if you could keep your amazing discovery to yourself?

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barneyjo | Mar 21, 2011, 06:33 PM EDT

@sirpeter - I knew it wouldnt be too long before I would have something to comment on."They are only words.But like the murder of the Jews.The Irish need acknowledgment too" - what about our own Jewish pogroms that happened on Irish soil at the instigation of Catholic Priests? What about the progroms being enacted against the Portugese, Latvian and other ethnic groups who live in largely nationalist areas in Northern Ireland? I wouldnt be too quick to dismiss unruliness and beligerence as being elemental within the Irish DNA!!

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sirpeter | Mar 21, 2011, 01:15 PM EDT

Towngate..How can you post a completely rational post at 10:08 AM EDT. One that has a much more balanced and truthful feel to it,while most of your posts are antagonistic towards all things Irish. You have called the Irish government a bunch of idiot's and I have never disagreed with your posts on them. Why!! Because you can't argue against the truth.(Even though part of me thinks this is all some sick rich mans plan and they can't be that stupid,but maybe they are.)On Irish history I don't give MY opinion,but the opinion of BRITISH and Irish first hand writing's of the period.Mostly British because they ran the country. These first hand BRITISH and Irish writing's are not even exposed to English University Level student's unless they wish to specialize in Irish history. While Irish history is only a tiny bit of English history.The lectures on Irish history tend to gloss over the main reasons for so many rebellions and it makes the Irish out to be unruly and belligerent. As a people we are not unruly and belligerent. I can prove this historically and in modern times. Look at what the Irish government has done in the last couple of years. Were there any riots. No!! Not like Greece. The French would have closed down the country. This doesn't make us stupid,it just makes us careful.This country has suffered enough. We ALL want to move on. The Queen's visit opens old wounds and people like me are nervous and watching.She can make this a very positive visit if she chooses to acknowledge some bitter legacy of British rule or something like that.Just a few words will make all the difference. They are only words.But like the murder of the Jews.The Irish need acknowledgment too.

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