Dublin Castle

The most important event occurred at Dublin Castle last night. Our President, Mary Mc Aleese gave a momentous speech in which she spoke of the bitter past between England and Ireland...one that lasted over 800 years, but that now had brought the two countries to reconciliation. She said, "The journey to peace has been cruelly slow and arduous but it has taken us to a place where hope thrives and the past no longer threatens to overwhelm our present and our future."

A noisy demonstration was held outside the castle, by up to 300 protesters, as the Queen, who wore a dress decorated with 2091 embroidered shamrocks and an Irish harp, started her speech with the words " A hUachtarain agus a chairde - "President and friends" in Gaelic. Our President was in shock when she spoke the Gaelic words, and she said, "Wow!" I think that all were surprised that the Queen had begun her speech in Gaelic.

The most memorable line of the speech was when the Queen said,"With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not done at all." This was the line that was printed on the front page of our newspapers this morning. Although, the Queen fell short of an apology, she did express regret when she spoke these words, and it was the top story in most of our newspapers today.

I can't begin to tell you how momentous this night was. Yes, there were protestors, but it was the night that England and Ireland began their reconciliation.

I hope that you watched this too. I can easily say that most Irish people watched this on their televisions, and they never imagined that they would see this all happening in their lifetimes. The rest of her visit , I won't talk about. We are getting ready for President Obama and his wife to arrive in Ireland this week. How I wish that I could meet him in person, but I will just have to watch it on tv. We are really having an exciting time in Ireland.