LONDON:BRITISH PRIME minister David Cameron has said Queen Elizabeth's upcoming visit to Ireland means "an enormous amount to her" and will stand as "a symbol of the strong partnership and friendship" now existing between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Mr Cameron, along with deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, yesterday attended a crowded reception in the House of Commons marking St Patrick’s Day, hosted by Champ, a group promoting peace in Northern Ireland.
“I can’t actually think of a time when the British-Irish friendship was so strong and the partnership was a strong as it is now. I think the way the two countries and two governments work together, including over all the issues in Northern Ireland, is absolutely vital and welcome,” Mr Cameron said.
“I will go on to do everything I can to make sure that is the case. I think one of the strongest possible indications of the strength of the friendship is the fact that Her Majesty the Queen is going to be visiting Ireland very shortly, and I’m sure that will be a huge success.
“I know it means an enormous amount to her, as it will to many people in Britain and in Ireland, as a symbol of the strong partnership and friendship we have,” Mr Cameron told the reception, which was sponsored by Tourism Ireland.
He congratulated Fine Gael and Labour on taking up office. “Clearly, there are huge challenges and difficulties to overcome, but I’m sure a new government with a new mandate will do everything it can to overcome them, and it has our friendship, our help and our assistance.”
Emphasising the deep links between the countries, Mr Clegg said: “It’s an uncertain world we live in and I think at uncertain times it is all the more important that we remember who our old friends are and what our long established alliances do for us.
“I remember David and I just reflecting a few months ago that despite our efforts to get more British exports to some of these big new shimmering markets on the other side of the planet, we still export more as a country to the Republic of Ireland than to Brazil, India, Russia and China combined.
“That fact alone, I think, illustrates the depth and the endurance of our relationship,” he went on.
On introducing Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton, Conservative peer Lord Robin Glentoran first gave her surname as “Bruton”, before later forgetting her political office: “I would like to introduce Joan Burton, the Minister for, I’m not quite sure. I can’t remember it. Social Protection, is it? Sorry, Joan.”
In her contribution, Ms Burton, in her first engagement abroad in her role, said: “We would be so happy to see British visitors coming back to Ireland, and we are sending a very strong message that we are open for business and that while we have lots of difficulties on the banking front, we also have a very vibrant economy.
“When the Queen does come to visit, I think it will in many ways set the seal on a friendship which both governments have worked so hard to redefine and to represent in a peaceful coming together of our communities.”
The Queen’s visit, she added, would give her the “chance to look at some of our horse-flesh and some stables and studs, which I think she will be very interested in”, but it would be a historic sealing of the peace process worked on so hard by successive governments in Dublin and London.
