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President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Micheál Martin will represent Ireland at a service in St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast on Tuesday to reflect on the life of Queen Elizabeth II.
The event, to be attended by King Charles III and the queen consort Camilla, is expected to draw large numbers into the city centre, as the royal couple carry out a series of engagements in the North to mark the new reign.
A significant security operation is under way.
Mr Higgins’s wife Sabina and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will also attend.
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Before the service, the royals will travel to Hillsborough Castle in Co Down, their official residence in the North, where they will meet Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris as well as representatives of political parties in the region.
A message of condolence from the speaker of the Stormont Assembly Alex Maskey will also be delivered to the royal couple.
It is expected they will undertake a walkabout at Writers’ Square beside St Anne’s Cathedral in the afternoon before they depart.
On Monday at Stormont, speaker Mr Maskey opened the session by stating the queen was held in high regard by many for the significant leadership that she contributed to making political progress in the region.
Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill said the queen’s life and legacy would be “fondly remembered by many people around the world”.
“Today I wish to record the value and respect I place on the significant contribution Queen Elizabeth made to the advancement of peace and reconciliation between the different traditions on our island, and between Ireland and Britain during the years of the peace process,” she said.
“I recognise that she was a courageous and gracious leader.”
Ms O’Neill said the queen had “made real efforts, and in good faith, to build relationships with those of us who are Irish, and who share a different political allegiance to herself and her government, and who wish to exercise our right to self-determination based on consent to achieve reunification and a shared island for all.”
The SDLP’s Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole also noted the queen’s “extraordinary contribution to reconciliation between Ireland and Britain”.
“The example of Queen Elizabeth was to stretch herself, to be generous and to use the symbolic power of her role not simply to command loyalty but to win respect, warmth and build bridges,” he said.
The DUP’s Gordon Lyons told the Assembly that many people in the North had “felt deep sorrow at the passing of someone who, as it has often been said, we will never see the like of again”.
“We have lost our greatest-ever monarch; a leader who was remarkable, not just for the longevity of her reign, impressive though it was, but because she was an exemplar of service, sacrifice and devotion to duty: duty right to the very end,” he added.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said the monarch’s “unswerving dedication” to duty was “a remarkable legacy which she leaves behind”.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll did not attend the Stormont session, stating he did not want to take part in “a political ceremony which uncritically supports the institution of monarchy”.
A minute’s silence preceded the opening of a book of condolence in Stormont’s Great Hall, signed first by Mr Maskey, then Ms O’Neill, Edwin Poots of the DUP, Mrs Long, UUP leader Doug Beattie and Mr O’Toole.
The trip by King Charles III on Tuesday follows a visit to Scotland on Monday, with a trip to Wales planned for later in the week.