A Royal Visit Part Two

Crowds and Gardai (thousands of Gardai) lined the streets of Dublin yesterday to greet Queen Elizabeth II. Upon walking outside of the campus gates of Trinity, (where she was greeted yesterday by SO many people–including Fr. Peter, my history professor from last semester, Anne Enright–who is a graduate of Trinity and one of the authors I will be writing on in my senior thesis–and Ireland’s previous president and also graduate of Trinity, Mary Robinson), I immediately noticed something that made me stop and stare–and almost made tears come to my eyes. The British and the Irish flags were flying side by side for the first time in over a hundred years. If that is not a symbol of hope, I couldn’t tell you what is.

On an even more exciting note, Queen Elizabeth drove down Westland Row today (and I was able to SEE her waving from my apartment window). Needless to say, she looks absolutely lovely today and will be attending a state dinner at Dublin Castle-where I may have to stalk her again!

As if this blog could get more exciting, my Mom is making her way over to the Emerald Isle tomorrow! I absolutely cannot wait for her arrival, and it looks like she will not only be able to see the Queen, but also President Obama, who is making his way over to Ireland to visit County Offaly and embrace his Irish heritage on Monday (stopping in Dublin first for a rally!) See, everyone just wants a piece of the Emerald Isle.  🙂

In other news, I began packing today and soon realized that packing is synonymous with sobbing. So, that didn’t last very long. I’d like to take this opportunity, then, to offer an apology in advance to the people who have to encounter me in Dublin Airport on the 27th!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 8:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “A Royal Visit Part Two”

1. Kelsey says:

   May 19, 2011 at 2:49 pm

   Wow – everyone does want a piece of your island!!! That is awesome! So many cool/famous people!! You should definitely go to the castle too 🙂