Charlie Haughey once jumped on a throne occupied by Queen Victoria and asked those present to kneel before him.

Ireland’s leader Enda Kenny informally invited the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Prince William and Kate Middleton) to visit Ireland last week when they were introduced at the pre-Olympic reception at Buckingham Palace.
 
Although the Irish Embassy in London must officially invite the royal couple before they can consider a trip it seems like likely that Prince William, who married last summer in the Irish Guards red uniform, will make a trip over.

Martin McGuinness has said that any decision to meet Queen Elizabeth on her jubilee visit to Northern Ireland later this month would depend on the likely impact on the peace process. Observers say it seems more likely than ever that he will agree to an historic meeting.

History may well be in the making as Sinn Fein look set to meet  Queen Elizabeth during her Diamond Jubilee visit to Northern Ireland later this month.

Six men, allegedly members of a dissident Irish Republican network, have been arrested on terrorism charges in Northern Ireland in the last week. The arrests come only weeks before Queen Elizabeth's visit to Northern Ireland for her Diamond Jubilee, and two months before the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The Queen’s visit to Ireland last year marked a ‘huge turning point’ in her life according to her grandson Prince William.

The Guinness Storehouse at St. James’ Gate in Dublin has received a welcome boost in tours since the historic visits of both President Barack Obama and Queen Elizabeth II this past May. Figures show that with 1,025,677 people going to visit the Storehouse this year, sales have jumped 10 percent, making the Storehouse Ireland’s number one fee-paying tourist draw.

The historic May visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland has been described by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, as a "game-changer" that heralded a new era in Anglo-Irish relations.

President Mary McAleese, on her last day in office, has stated that the success against all the odds of the peace process was the highlight of her 14 years in office while the economic downturn presented her greatest challenge.

The number of tourists visiting Ireland has increased more than 15 percent in the second quarter in comparison to last year’s figures for the same period, proving that Queen Elizabeth and U.S. President Barack Obama’s visits to Ireland bolstered tourism in the country.

The recent four-day visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Ireland – the first by a reigning monarch in a hundred years – was a stunning triumph, capped by the five-minute standing ovation she received at a musical performance on her final night in the Irish capital. That performance included excerpts from Riverdance, which the Queen appeared to hugely enjoy. Bill Whelan, the composer of Riverdance, was also commissioned to write a march for an Irish military band for the arrival of the Queen at Dublin Airport. The title of this piece, “The Walk of a Queen,” carried a hidden meaning, for it was taken from the famous closing line to Yeats’s revolutionary play, Cathleen ni Houlihan, first produced in 1902.

An Irish police body has revealed that their staff were denied “basic human needs” during President Obama and Queen Elizabeth’s visits to Ireland. They were denied hot food, toilet breaks and relief from work for up to 18 hours at a time during the State.

The Queen’s visit to Ireland last month has broken new records – for the amount of mail sent to Buckingham Palace in response to the trip.

Irish tourist chiefs have started plans to cash in on President Obama and Queen Elizabeth with targeted attacks on the American and British markets.